Kotak Bank forays into healthcare lending

Kotak Mahindra Bank on Tuesday announced its foray to the healthcare lending space, where it will be taking exposures of up to ₹15 crore each.

The private sector lender, be that as it may, won’t look for assets from the Reserve Bank’s’ on-tap liquidity scheme for the sector, as its expense of assets is extremely low, its President and Head of Business Banking Assets, Sunil Daga, said.

In May this year, the RBI had declared an on-tap liquidity window of ₹50,000 crore for on-loaning by banks to the healthcare sector, where they can take openings of as long as three years and access financing at the repo rate.

Daga said the bank’s’ cost of assets is “very competitive” and thus, it won’t get to the RBI window. Indeed, even without the national bank’s’ special window, the business is exciting, he added.

Till now, Kotak Mahindra Bank had been giving assets to the healthcare sector however presently it has an engaged contribution, Daga said, adding that the business will be important for its consumer segment.

Daga declined to indicate the size of its present medical services book, yet added that it was miniscule. Presently, the bank has made a dedicated pan India group to cater to this business.