Reserve Bank of India nods approves Kotak Mahindra Bank's acquisition of ING Vysya Bank

MUMBAI: Months old wait has come to an end for Kotak Mahindra Bank, which has acquired ING Vysya Bank in last November last, as the Reserve Bank of India has approved its merger proposal on the last day of the financial year. With this, Kotak is set to become fourth largest private sector lender. The scheme of amalgamation has come into effect from April 1 this year. "Our balance sheet will reflect the merger at the end of April-June quarter," Jaimin Bhatt, president & group CFO, Kotak Mahindra Bank told ET. "We will be fully merging all divisions (of two banks) next one year. We are set to start with treasury operations, compliance, tax…""The merged entity (bank) would incur significant costs in terms of marketing, credit cards, technology and so on. We have not yet decided the accounting for the same," he said.

All the branches of ING Vysya Bank will function as branches of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. with effect from April 1, 2015, RBI said in a statement-.Kotak is unlikely to shut down any branch but has decided to shift locations of a few branches.