Kotak Bank CEO Bats For 'Completely Different' Level Of IT Infra In Letter To Employees

The "explosive" growth of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. through digital channels has increased the need for a completely different level of technology infrastructure, Chief Executive Officer Ashok Vaswani wrote to employees via an email on Wednesday, after Reserve Bank of India imposed curbs on the lender.

"However, the explosive growth in business through our digital channels has necessitated a completely different level of technology infrastructure, which we have been building. Rest assured, we will resolve all the issues raised by the RBI in short order," he wrote in the email reviewed by NDTV Profit.

Vaswani also added that over the last two years, the bank has significantly invested in resilience of technology platforms, which is also evident from reduction in downtime.

"This is a testament to the tremendous efforts put in by our technology colleagues," he said.

The bank will continue to provide all services to existing customers through all channels, according to the top executive. "We will continue to onboard new customers across all products (other than credit cards) through all non-digital channels."

KVS Manian, joint managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, also wrote an email to employees, with frequently asked questions for their perusal.

These FAQs were on RBI action and could be used by employees to address queries raised by stakeholders. In them, it was clarified that there will be no impact on debit card issuance for existing and new customers sourced through branches.

Even the existing Kotak 811 customers will not be impacted. "All services for existing customers, including credit card facilities, will continue without interruption. However, online onboarding of new customers will be paused temporarily," it said.

The development comes after RBI on Wednesday, directed the bank to stop issuance of fresh credit cards and customer onboarding on online and mobile banking systems.

NDTV Profit reported that the primary issue was related to the scalability of core-banking system of the lender, along with high-volume UPI transactions, contributing to the mess.