Kotak Mahindra Bank has introduced instant, one-click disbursals of working capital demand loans (WCDL) for corporate clients. It makes Kotak Bank the first in the wholesale banking space to disburse funds at the click of a button.
“We have brought the disbursement time down from 24 hours to four hours to just a few seconds,” said Anu Aggarwal, president and head of corporate banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Historically, technology investments in banking focused more on consumer segments, while wholesale banking depended on fragmented processes and higher levels of manual intervention. This is now changing as corporates expect speed, transparency and self-service capabilities, she said.
Anu Aggarwal on Kotak’s FYN
Built on Kotak’s corporate digital platform, fyn (for your needs), the new journey simplifies a manual, multi-layered process into a seamless digital flow. Clients now enter just three fields — amount, tenure and account — following which pricing is auto-picked, validations run digitally and funds are released instantly. “Once the client presses ‘yes’, the money hits the account. Nobody is doing this right now,” Aggarwal said.
The bank has already disbursed Rs 7,500 crore through this mechanism since the pilot was launched a few months ago, starting with SME and mid-market clients and now extending it to large corporates and conglomerates.
The impact is significant because 70% of all corporate loan journeys are WCDL related, making this one of the highest-volume, highest-impact processes in wholesale banking.
Beyond speed, the feature also enhances customer flexibility. “Earlier, customers had to request the working loan by 4 p.m.; now they can draw down even later in the evening,” says Aggarwal.
All business segments to be fully enabled
Soon, all business segments are expected to be fully enabled on the platform, creating a foundation for zero-touch, instant drawdowns. The bank intends to extend this experience to other loan products and broader digital lending journeys.
Kotak’s digital transformation extends far beyond lending. The bank has overhauled its service infrastructure, digitising routine corporate requests such as account statements, TDS certificates and reconciliations.
Aggarwal said the bank is also building deeper digital integrations with clients’ ERPs, especially in collections and distributor payments, creating what she calls “very sticky products” because once automated reconciliations and reporting are embedded, switching becomes difficult.
“Tech creates stickiness. Once a customer gets used to the journey, there’s little reason to move away,” she said.
Since the launch of fyn three years back, Kotak has seen strong client acquisition in mid-market and SME segments, growing 30–40% annually, with digital journeys increasingly becoming a decisive differentiator.