Knowledge: How demonetization changed the fortune of Kotak bank?
Introduction
When demonetization was announced in November 2016, everyone moved to transact digitally. A nation of 1.3 billion people is ready to go cashless.The only problem was, Indian banks were not ready yet. They did not have the tech to enable this. Indian startups saw this opportunity and swept the floor with the big banks.
This made India's richest banker re-visit his banking plans and come up with Kotak 811, the first neobank in India.
The demonetization of high-value currency notes is a much-debated policy in India. The move has gained a fair share of criticism and support from a wide spectrum of customers.
One unquestionable change that happened after demonetization was a shot in the arm for the Indian financial sector. The biggest winners are Kotak Mahindra Bank and Uday Kotak.
When Prime minister Modi announced the demonetization plan in November 2016 Indian banks were not ready to meet the sudden demand for cashless digital transactions. Indian Fintech startups saw this as an opportunity and quickly swept the floor with the Indian banks
Asia's biggest banker Uday Kotak noticed the helplessness of Indian traditional banks. Unlike other banks, he moved quickly and built a new arm of digital banking in Kotak Mahindra bank. the main aim was to take advantage of the growing digital trend in the Indian finance sector.
Kotak Mahindra Bank launched its Kotak 811digital banking app in 4 months after demonetization.
the name of app 811 is also inspired by demonetization. 8/11(8th November 2016) was the day when PM announced the move to the general public
When Kotak 811 was launched. Kotak Mahindra bank had 80 lakh investment accounts.. in the next 14 months after the launch of Kotak 811, the number of savings accounts increased to 1.45 crores. The banks record an 81.25% increase in customer base in just 14 months.
Kotak 811 simplified the account opening process. the whole onboarding process was paperless and online. one can simply use their phone to open zero balance accounts within a few minutes. Kotak bank further gave the option to upgrade this 811 account to a standard account
Kotak Mahindra Bank took the first step towards what we call now a neobank before anyone else in India.
The stock market rewarded the mission of Uday Kotak. Before demonetization, the net worth of Uday Kotak was $8 billion. Currently, he is the richest banker in the world with a net worth of $13.8 billion after the death of Joseph Safra.
0 Comments