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Private sector Kotak Mahindra Bank today inked a pact with ING Bank for exploring opportunities arising from cross-border business, investments and trade flows across various geographies, including Europe.
The MoU covers an array of co-operation in areas such as trade, finance, remittances and services related to non-resident Indians, funding to counter-parties' corporate relationships, fee-based products, direct banking and digital strategy, and cross-border debt capital markets and M&A.
"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," the bank's president KVS Manian said here.
ING Bank, as it will give clients from The Netherlands and other 39 countries, where it is active in commercial banking, access to Kotak's services in vast Indian market while at the same time it will offer the combined clients in India the opportunities of ING's international network, he said.
"Therefore, it really underscores our purpose to empower people to stay a step ahead, in life and in business," he added.
"This MoU is equally important to both ING and Kotak Mahindra because it will fuel both our ambitions for cross-border business growth," said Mark Newman, CEO of ING Commercial Banking Asia.
ING Bank holds 6.5 per cent stake in the country's fourth largest private sector lender.
On November 20, 2014, Kotak Mahindra Bank and the erstwhile ING Vysya Bank announced the scheme of merger, where both the banks expressed intent to explore areas of cooperation in cross-border business.
Effective April 1, 2015, ING Vysya Bank has merged with Kotak Mahindra Bank, creating a Rs 2 trillion institution, which has brought together two strong players in the industry to form a more robust and fundamentally sound bank.
