52% FDs booked through mobile app
Kotak Mahindra Bank enhances its FD booking & servicing journey:
As on 31 March 2020, the Kotak Mahindra Bank had a national network of 1600 branches and 2519 ATMs, besides branches in GIFT City and DIFC (Dubai), affording it the means to serve its customers through its wide presence. Deepak Sharma, President & Chief Digital Officer, says in FY2020, 4.4 million 811 accounts were opened digitally. Accounts continue to be opened in April and May 2020, during the lockdown and the rate in May 2020 was 14,000 accounts per day, he adds.
SOURCED DIGITALLY
CASA ratio of the bank as on 31 March stood at 56.2% compared to 52.5% as on 31 March 2019. Average savings deposits grew by 21% to `856.56 billion for FY2020 compared to `709.90 bn for FY2019. The average current account deposits grew by 17% to `336.99 billion for the year and term deposits were 6.6% of the total deposits.
Digital remains a focus area for the bank, says Sharma adding: “During Q4FY2020, the share of recurring deposits sourced digitally was 93% and that of term deposits 80%. With the implementation of open banking, 91 API relationships have been enabled till 31 March 2020.”
Over 65% of the bank’s FDs placed in rural areas were done online while in urban areas, this is over 80%. “We expect these numbers will increase further going forward,” says Sharma.
IMPACT OF APP IN GROWTH
Digital initiatives, primarily mobile banking app, have significant impact on the growth of FDs in the last couple of years and Sharma gives the details: “During FY 2019-20, we have booked 52% of the FDs using our mobile app only and 75% from all our digital platforms overall.”
HOME BANKING
Pre-covid, there were times when a customer could avail services of her relationship manager who would at the request of the customer visit the premises and carry out banking activities like FDs, but now, says Sharma, with the high digital adoption and online presence, a customer can open an FD account from the comforts of here home using net banking, mobile banking or phone banking.
The bank has seen certain changes in the tenures of FDs. “We have seen the money flowing into shorter tenor FDs,” says Sharma, “primarily from businesses and the self-employed. Money that would have normally remained in circulation is now being booked as short-term FDs. We have also seen increased flow in mutual funds and direct equity. Customers continue to invest in long term saving instruments like term deposits and NPS.”
VIDEO BASED KYC
On the digital front, the bank keeps enhancing the FD booking and servicing journey. It was amongst the first banks to offer TD sweep where any surplus amount lying in one’s savings or current accounts can get swept into a term deposit thereby earning the customer a higher rate of interest. Sharma elaborates: “We have added nomination addition and premature withdrawal options on our mobile app to offer a better FD servicing experience. Recently, we launched India’s first video-based KYC platform which offers convenient and zero-touch full KYC account opening experience. Prospective customers can use this platform to open a savings account and subsequently for placing an FD. We plan to launch several new enhancements in our FD platform.”