Kotak Mahindra Bank Rings 811 To Take Digital Lead

The launch of 811, India’s first downloadable digital banking ecosystem, has enabled Kotak Mahindra Bank to increase its share of wallet in India’s highly competitive banking space

- Abhishek Raval

It is a sign of Kotak Mahindra Bank’s digital strengths that is helping the bank deliver stellar results. In its recent results for Q1FY19, the bank declared that mobile banking transactions crossed one crore in volume and ₹ 10,000 crore in value; 89 per cent of recurring deposits were sourced digitally while 67 per cent of fixed deposits were sourced digitally. The bank is also close to doubling its customer base - in March 2017, the bank had estimated that it would double its customer base from eight million to 16 million by September 2018. In the quarter ended June 2018, the customer base moved from eight million at the end of March 2017 to 14.5 million. As the bank accelerates its digital strategy, Aruna Rao, Group CTO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, shares why 811 is a game changer for the bank.

In a recent media interaction, Uday Kotak said, "My science fiction view of banking is that you will see a complete blurring of financial services and technology, and banks of the future will have to work at a quarter of their current cost models." What's your view?

I think the picture that Uday Kotak has painted has already started to play out. We see several technology firms offering financial services and banks are offering a full range of cutting edge banking products and services on their mobile and net banking platforms. Kotak’s mobile banking app is also an ideal lifestyle app for e-commerce transactions on Flipkart, PVR, Goibibo, Shopclues, IRCTC, etc.

In addition, new age digital products are conceived and designed by multi-skilled teams who understand banking as well as technology.