Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) and ING Bank have joined hands to cooperate and explore opportunities arising from cross border business, investment and trade flows across Benelux, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed in the presence of the visiting Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte here on Friday.
This cooperation will give ING Bank’s clients from the Netherlands and the other 39 countries where it is active in commercial banking access to KMB’s services in the vast Indian market.
At the same time, this MoU will offer the clients of KMB (combined recently with ING Vysya Bank) in India the opportunities of ING’s international network.
The MoU — which is initially valid for a period of one year — covers an array of cooperation areas such as trade finance, remittances and services related to non-resident Indians, nostro and vostro accounts, funding to counterparties’ corporate relationships, fee based products (including but not limited to foreign exchange, letters of credit and guarantees), direct banking and digital strategy, and cross border debt capital markets and mergers and acquisitions.
KVS Manian, President-Corporate, Institutional & Investment Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank said that the MoU will leverage the strengths of both institutions and will be mutually beneficial.
"We have a strong corporate, institutional and investment banking business, which can now meet varying client needs across several geographies", Manian said.
Mark Newman, Chief Executive Officer, Asia, ING Bank said that the collaboration will allow both the institutions to stand apart and create that differentiating experience for "our India clients outside India and our global clients’ active within India".
This MoU is equally important for both ING Bank and Kotak Mahindra as it would fuel "both our ambitions for cross border growth", Newman said.