Kotak Mahindra Bank managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) Uday Kotak on Saturday cautioned against the bureaucratisation of financial services in India.

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“I feel the financial sector players risk becoming more robotic, curbing the entrepreneurial flair since the fear of making a mistake overrides the joy of creation and development. While we need ‘Arjuna’s eye’ on risk management, we must prevent bureaucratisation of financial services,” Kotak in a letter to shareholders said.

The country's richest banker said Kotak Mahindra Bank has created value for stakeholders and provided 100,000 direct jobs and a multiple of that in indirect jobs.

Also, an investor who invested Rs 10,000 with us in 1985 would be worth Rs 300 crore today. Most importantly, we have built an institution, on the basic tenets of trust and transparency, Kotak said.

The founder promoter of Kotak Mahindra Bank, who is expected to step down by December 2023, said it's unusual in today’s world of banking anywhere to have an individual with around 26 percent skin in the game with disproportionate family assets in one stock, emotionally attached to living his dream of making India proud.

Kotak said he has spent most of his life here, starting from scratch with very little capital in 1985, 3 people, and a 300 square feet office.

Talking about the Indian economy, the billionaire said the Indian macro is in good shape. So is the micro. At this stage, a virtuous cycle for India is on the cards. Our financial sector is in its Goldilocks period. The clock striking midnight seems far away for Cinderella.

“We must avoid a mindset that we want accident-free roads hence we will restrict cars. Instead, to take this analogy further, we need more roads, more cars and better signals and traffic regulations. Accidents have to be minimised and managed, and cannot be eliminated without having a significant impact on growth aspirations,” he said.

On hiring, the CEO said the bank is willing to benchmark the internal talent vis-a-vis our needs and attract the talent from outside for Kotak to be the best in class in what we do for our stakeholders. I can see and feel a palpable change, both in the mindset and the execution.

“In the last one year alone, we have onboarded a new CTO, a Chief of Customer Experience, a Head of Brand, Product and Marketing and a Chief of Retail and Commercial Risk to drive potentially transformative changes in each of these areas. At the same time we will grow internal talent, which is future-ready,” he added.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Jul 15, 2023 5:40 PM IST