Hyderabad, Aug 16 (UNI) Kotak Mahindra Bank on Thursday announced that it will open over 100 branches in the current financial year in the country including 5 more branches in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Addressing in a press conference, Bank’s senior Executive Vice-President Puneet Kapoor said the bank has an all India branch network of 1,391 branches and 2,231 ATMs as on June 30, 2018 and by March, 2019, the total network branches would be closer to 1500.

We will continue to expand our branch network across India using a dual strategy – we are implementing a hub and spoke model in locations where we are already present, he said we are also expanding our physical footprint in locations where the bank has received many requests to open an 811 account ( xero balance) but where we do not have branches as yet.

The bank continues to clock the fastest pace of customer acquisition and savings account growth in the Indian banking industry, he claimed and said from 8 million customers on March 29, 2017 when 811 – India’s first downloadable digital bank account was launched to 14.5 million customers (including 811 customers) as on June 30, this year.

With 811, customer can open a digital bank account (SA) through Aadhaar number with 5 minutes from anywhere anytime using their smartphone or on the web .

We are expected to reach 16 million customers by September , 2018 , he said the bank is focused on making banking more accessible for every Indian through 811, and offers higher return of 6 per cent interest rate per month on savings account balances above Rs 1 lakh and up to Rs 1 crore.

The Bank’s savings Account (SA) book continues to grow faster than the Indian Industry average, he said the average growth rate of the bank in the last 6 years was around 40 per cent on a Y-O-Y basis more than double that of the industry growth rate.

As on June 30, 2018, the Bank’s SA book was at Rs 66,621 crore , he added.

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