Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited is an Indian

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

company headquartered in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. It offers banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers in the areas of

personal finance Personal finance is the financial management that an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources in a controlled manner, taking into account various financial risks and future life events. When planni ...

investment banking Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by und ...

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typical ...

, and

wealth management Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-hi ...

. As of December 2023, the bank has 1,869 branches and 3,239 ATMs, including branches in

GIFT City Gujarat International Finance Tec-City also called GIFT City, is a central business district under construction in the Gandhinagar district as suburb city of Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad Metropolitan Region in Gujarat, India. It is India's first ope ...

and DIFC (Dubai).

History

1985–2002: Kotak Mahindra Finance

In 1985,

Uday Kotak Uday Suresh Kotak (born 15 March 1959) is an Indian billionaire banker and founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, where he is a non-executive director. He resigned from his CEO position in September 2023. He handed over the digital banking CEO role t ...

founded Kotak Capital Management Finance Limited as a financial services company with a loan of 30

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

from family and friends. In 1986,

Anand Mahindra Anand Gopal Mahindra (born 1 May 1955) is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman of Mahindra Group, a Mumbai-based business conglomerate. The group operates in aerospace, agribusiness, aftermarket, automotive, components, construc ...

and his father Harish Mahindra invested 1 lakh in the company which was subsequently renamed Kotak Mahindra Finance. The company was initially engaged in bill discounting, along with

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

and

hire purchase A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment (e.g., 40% of the total) and repaying the balance of the price of the asset pl ...

activities. In the early 1990s, the company started offering car financing and

services and expanded its operations overseas. In 1996, car financing company Kotak Mahindra Primus was incorporated as a 60:40

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between Kotak Mahindra Finance and Ford Credit International. In the same year, Kotak Mahindra Finance hived off its investment banking division into a new company, Kotak Mahindra Capital, started in partnership with

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

. In 1998, Kotak Mahindra Finance started its

mutual fund A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase Security (finance), securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in ...

arm called Kotak Mahindra AMC. In 2001, OM Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance was established as a 74:26 joint venture between Kotak Mahindra Finance and

Old Mutual Old Mutual (officially Old Mutual Limited) is a South African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group, operating across Africa. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchan ...

2003–present: Kotak Mahindra Bank

In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance received a

banking licence In most legal jurisdictions, a financial institution is required to obtain a banking licence before it is legally permitted to carry on a banking business. Besides other requirements, such a business is not permitted to contain in its name words ...

from the

Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...

, becoming India's first non-banking finance company to be converted into a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

. Kotak Mahindra Finance was then renamed Kotak Mahindra Bank. At the time,

had a 56% stake in the company while

held a 5% stake. In 2005, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired Ford Credit's 40% stake in Kotak Mahindra Primus, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group. Kotak Mahindra Primus was subsequently renamed as Kotak Mahindra Prime. In 2006, Kotak Mahindra Bank bought out Goldman Sachs' 25% stake in Kotak Mahindra Capital for and 25% in Kotak Securities for , turning both companies into its wholly-owned subsidiaries. In 2014, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired a 15% stake in

Multi Commodity Exchange Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited, also known as the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), is an Indian commodity exchange. It was established in 2003 and is currently based in Mumbai. It is India's largest commodity derivatives ex ...

(MCX) from Financial Technologies Group for to become the company's largest shareholder. In 2014, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced the acquisition of ING Vysya Bank in a deal valued at . With the merger completed in 2015, Kotak Mahindra Bank had almost 40,000 employees, and the number of branches reached 1,261. After the merger,

ING Group ING Group N.V. () is a Dutch multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, whol ...

, which controlled ING Vysya Bank, obtained a 6.5% stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank. In 2015, Kotak Mahindra General Insurance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank, started operations after receiving IRDAI's approval. In 2016,

Bharti Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Telecommunications in India, telecommunications company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. ...

and Kotak Mahindra Bank started an 80:20

called

Airtel Payments Bank Airtel Payments Bank is an Indian payments bank with its headquarters in New Delhi. The company is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel. On 5 January 2022, it was granted the scheduled bank status by the Reserve Bank of India under the second schedul ...

. In 2016, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired BSS Microfinance for . In March 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank launched an

online savings account An online savings account (OSA) is a savings account managed and funded primarily on the Internet. Features OSAs are often characterized by a higher interest rate or lower fees, compared with traditional savings accounts. Many of these high-yie ...

called Kotak 811, named after the date Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

had announced demonetisation in the previous year (8 November), which according to Uday Kotak was "the day that changed India." Kotak 811 helped the bank double its number of customers by September 2018. In April 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired Old Mutual's 26% stake in Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance for , making the life insurance company its wholly-owned subsidiary. In 2021, Kotak Mahindra Bank sold its 8.57% stake in Airtel Payments Bank to

Bharti Enterprises Bharti Enterprises Limited is an Indian multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate, headquartered in Delhi. It was founded in 1976 by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Enterprises owns businesses spanning across tel ...

for . In the same year, Kotak Mahindra Group acquired the vehicle financing portfolio of Volkswagen Finance India and passenger vehicle financing portfolio of Ford Credit India. In 2022, it acquired the agriculture and healthcare equipment financing portfolio of DLL India. In 2023, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired microfinancier Sonata Finance for . In February 2024,

Zurich Insurance Group Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. is a Swiss insurance company, headquartered in Zürich, and the country's largest insurer. the group is the world's 98th largest public company according to ''Forbes'' Global 2000s list, and in 2011, it ranked 94th i ...

announced its acquisition of a 70% stake in Kotak Mahindra General Insurance for .

Subsidiaries and associates

Major subsidiaries of the Bank include *

Kotak Securities Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai. It offers banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers in the areas of personal finance, investment banking, l ...

* Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance * Kotak Mahindra General Insurance * Kotak AMC

Recognition

In a study by Brand Finance Banking 500 published in February 2014 by ''Banker'' magazine, Kotak Mahindra Bank was ranked 245th among the world's top 500 banks with a brand valuation of around and brand rating of AA+.

Philanthropy

In 2020, Kotak pledged to donate to the

PM CARES Fund The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was created on 27 March 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Although it is named for the Prime Minister of India, and uses the State E ...

to fight against the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in India.

Controversies

In April 2024, the

barred Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding new customers via mobile banking, online channels, and issuing new credit cards. Existing customers were not affected. The RBI cited deficiencies in the bank's IT systems as the reason for this action.

History

1985–2002: Kotak Mahindra Finance

2003–present: Kotak Mahindra Bank

Subsidiaries and associates

Recognition

Philanthropy

Controversies

See also

References

External links

Further reading