Kotak Mahindra Bank
India’s biggest banks all deserve plaudits for steering their firms in the right direction in 2020, despite facing an unprecedented global health crisis.
Asset quality in India’s banking sector remained robust, defying expectations of a big spike in non-performing loans. This was partly thanks to banks making prudent decisions about lending and putting in place higher provisions than needed, in order to tackle distressed debt.
All of India’s largest banks can be proud of how they weathered the storm, but Kotak Mahindra Bank, led by chief executive Uday Kotak, stands out. It is the winner of two Asiamoney awards this year – one for its prowess in corporate and investment banking and the other for its overall domestic banking performance, recognizing its resilience, growth and the strategic moves it made in 2020 to navigate the difficulties posed by the Covid crisis.
Let’s take Kotak’s CIB franchise first. Veteran banker KVS Manian oversees corporate banking and investment banking, institutional equities and wealth management. Kotak worked on a number of onshore structured and corporate bonds for issuers including Muthoot Finance, Shriram Transport Finance, entities of the Tata Group and Godrej Industries last year.
It