Kotak Mahindra Bank battles with its neobank SBI YONO, Paytm | Rare Techy

In August, Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) held an internal audit meeting at its headquarters in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. The meeting began with a presentation by Uday Kotak’s son and chief executive, Jay Kotak, on Kotak811—the bank’s digital avatar. The message was clear: the unit envisioned as a customer acquisition tool was now headquartered in the bank.

The bank’s annual report for the year ended March 2022 mentions Kotak811, which started in March 2017 as a small team that was supposed to assemble zero-balance savings accounts and cross-sell products to customers, as a unit. semi-autonomous that focuses on exponential growth. The unit now has a separate website that describes it as a “fully digital, in your phone, mobile bank”.

But KMB has even bigger plans for neobank. “Uday Kotak spoke about the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) plans to implement digital banking licenses by 2023. It gave us a glimpse into the bank’s plans for Kotak811,” said a former employee who did not want to be briefed on the timing. explain yourself said. employers in general.

These lofty dreams are a natural consequence as Kotak811 steps into its fifth year of operation. In the quarter ended March 2022, the neobank under KMB opened five accounts for every 10 by HDFC Bank. It also issued four credit cards against every 10 issued by the country’s largest private bank.

Not just banks, Kotak811 also targets Indian fintechs. It paid off nearly three-quarters of Paytm*’s debt.

When on dozens of neobank or

digital-bank intermediaries


digital-bank intermediaries

The Ken
RBI and BFO control neobanks 👀
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As Fi Money, Jupiter, Open, and Razorpay work in partnership with traditional banks in India, the concept of digital-only banks is still taking shape. A digital bank offers all online services without physical branches.

In July, government think tank Niti Aayog

pitched for


pitched for

Niti Aayog
Digital Banks: A Proposal for Licensing & Regulatory Regime for India
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full-stack digital banks in its report that presents a roadmap for licensing and regulatory regimes for digital banks in the country. If the banking regulator allows digital banks, Kotak811 could be one of the earliest contenders to apply for the license.

Earlier in an investor meeting on May 24 at the Sofitel hotel in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), Uday Kotak gave a handshake to Jay for showing the surprisingly good numbers that Kotak811 had set for the year ending March 2022. Jay had earlier compared neobank to India’s largest private sector bank and largest listed fintech. Before this, Kotak811 was mostly an acquisition engine.