Kotak Mahindra Bank has chalked out plans to focus on Kerala’s NRI population to boost its business in the State.
Virat Diwanji, executive vice-president and head of branch banking, business assets and NR, said that the focus is more on NRI customers in the State and the bank has enlarged its team size to chase the population.
Diwanji, who was here in connection with the launching of the bank’s new ad campaign, told reporters here that the NRI contribution to the overall deposit base of Kotak Mahindra Bank in Kerala is over one-third and the bank wanted to take it to half in the next one year. Kerala, he said, is a state for NR population and the bank is aiming to capitalise their deposits.
The current customer base of Kotak Mahindra Bank in Kerala is 20,000 and the bank is looking at 20-25 per cent growth in the next one year. The deposits in the State are around Rs 200 crore. The bank, with five branches in the State, will add one more in the next 3-4 months, he said.
He pointed out that the bank’s savings bank account has grown over 40 per cent from Rs 40 crore to over Rs 56 crore in Kerala region following the introduction of 6 per cent p.a. interest rates on savings account.
The newly launched interest offering on SB accounts has had a very positive impact as it has enabled customers to match this return with the post tax yields of term deposits of short to medium tenure, he said adding, that the bank has registered a 68 per cent increase in the SB deposits nation wide.
The entire product suite of the bank available in Kerala are – car loans, business loans, loans against shares, loans against property, agriculture loan etc.
Asked about the bank’s gold loan exposure, Diwanji said the bank is gradually building its business in gold loan portfolio, which is now available in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. This will be expanded to Kerala very soon, he added.