Gujarat tops Kotak Bank business agenda

Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) considers Gujarat as the most important state in the country for its business, Uday Kotak, vice chairman and managing director of KMB, said in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

Uday Kotak, who was in the city to inaugurate the first flull-fledged KMB branch in Ahmedabad, said over the next three years, there will be between 50 and 75 branches of the bank all over the country, of which, between 10 and 15 per cent will be in Gujarat alone.

Uday Kotak said now KMB customers can avail services of any ATM of any financial institution provided the machine accepts Visa cards.

"Our bank customers can now use any ATM that offers the Visa facility without any transaction cost," Kotak said.

Earlier, the bank had a tie-up with UTI Bank, whereby customers could use the UTI Bank ATM network for all transactions free of any charges.

This facility has now been extended to all VISA ATMs across the country. "Outside Mumbai and Delhi, Gujarat will have the highest number of KMB branches," he said.

Prakash Nayak, who heads the operations of Kotak Bank in Gujarat, said two more full-fledged branches of the bank will be opened at Rajkot and Surat in the next three months. "We are in an advance stage of setting up branches at Rajkot and Surat," Nayak said.

Nayak said apart from the three KMB branches in the state which offer complete financial advisory solutions, the group has presence up to 12 different locations in the state where products like life insurance, mutual funds and vehicle loans are being provided.

The Ahmedabad branch, spread over 2,500 sq ft in Chandan House near Mithakhali Six Roads, has separate sections for finance and investments, banking, personalised advice and other services.

The bank also has an ATM within the premises.