Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai . It offers banking products and financial services to businesses and individuals in the areas of personal finance , investment banking, life insurance and wealth management. It is the third largest private sector bank in India by market capitalization.  As of February 2021, the bank had 1,600 branches and 2,519 ATMs

History

In 1985, Uday Kotak founded Kotak Capital Management Finance as an investment and financial services company, with a loan of ₹30Lac  from family and friends. In 1986, Anand Mahindra and his father Harish Mahindra invested ₹ 1 lakh in the business and it was later renamed Kotak Mahindra Finance. The company initially engaged in bill discounting, as well as hire -purchase and hire-purchase businesses . 

In the early 1990s, the company launched auto finance and investment banking services and expanded operations overseas. In 1996, auto finance company Kotak Mahindra Primus was incorporated as a 60/40 joint venture between Kotak Mahindra Finance and Ford Credit International. In the same year, Kotak Mahindra Finance spun off its investment banking division into a new company, Kotak Mahindra Capital, launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs.

In 1998, Kotak Mahindra Finance launched its mutual fund subsidiary called Kotak Mahindra AMC.  In 2001, OM Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance was established as a 74/26 joint venture between Kotak Mahindra Finance and Old Mutual.

In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance received a banking license from the Reserve Bank of India. With this, it became the first non-banking financial company in India to be converted into a bank . Kotak Mahindra Finance was later renamed Kotak Mahindra Bank.  At the time, Uday Kotak held 56% of the company’s capital while Anand Mahindra held 5%.

In 2005, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired Ford Credit’s 40% stake in Kotak Mahindra Primus, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group.  Kotak Mahindra Primus was later renamed Kotak Mahindra Prime.  In 2006, Kotak Mahindra Bank bought out Goldman Sachs’ 25% stake in Kotak Mahindra Capital for 210 crores ₹($46.35 million) and 25% stake in Kotak Securities for 123 crores ₹($27.15 million), turning the two companies into its wholly owned subsidiaries.

In 2014, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired a 15% stake in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) from Financial Technologies Group for 459 crores ₹(US$75.21 million) to become the company’s largest shareholder.

In 2014, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced the acquisition of ING Vysya Bank in a deal valued at 15 000 crores ₹(2.34 billion US dollars). With the merger completed in 2015, Kotak Mahindra Bank had almost 40,000 employees and the number of branches reached 1,261 ^.  After the merger, ING Group , which controlled ING Vysya Bank, obtained a 6.5% stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

In 2015, Kotak Mahindra General Insurance , a wholly owned subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank, started operations after receiving IRDAI approval .  In 2016, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank launched an 80/20joint venture called Banque de paiements Airtel . 

In 2016, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired BSS Microfinance for 139,2 crores ₹ (20,72 millions USD).

In March 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank launched an online savings account called Kotak 811, named after the date when Narendra Modi announced the demonetization the year before,  which according to Uday Kotak was “the day that changed India”.  Kotak 811 helped the bank double its number of customers in September 2018.

In April 2017, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired Old Mutual’s 26% stake in Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance for 1 292 crores ₹(US$198.4 million), making the life insurance company its wholly owned subsidiary.

In 2021, Kotak Mahindra Bank sold its 8.57% stake in Airtel Payments Bank to Bharti Enterprises for 295 crores ₹(US$39.81 million).  In the same year, the Kotak Mahindra Group acquired the vehicle finance portfolio of Volkswagen Finance India and the passenger vehicle finance portfolio of Ford Credit India .

Subsidiaries and associates 

The main subsidiaries of the Bank include

• Kotak Mahindra Premier
• Kotak Mahindra Investments
• Kotak Securities
• Capitale Kotak Mahindra
• Assurance vie Kotak Mahindra
• Kotak Mahindra General Insurance
• Kotak AMC
• Kotak Investment Advisors
• Kotak Capital Company