Beware Of Kotak Mahindra Bank, MSME Industry Body Tells Members In Advisory
New Delhi, April 13: MSME industry body Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) has advised its members to exercise caution while dealing with Kotak Mahindra Bank.
FISME has claimed that a relationship with Kotak is often seen to come with hidden costs, higher interest rates, excessive forex commissions, overcharging for routine services and poor service delivery. UNI has reviewed the advisory sent out to FISME members.
“FISME as a body of MSME enterprises is duty bound to take up issues that harm legitimate interests of MSMEs. Backed by professional advice it is going to take up the Bank related issues with all concerned authorities and also escalating these at political level if forced to do so,” the industry body has said in its advisory. The industry body told its members, “You are wiser if you have already experienced Kotak’s above short changings, but in case you are planning to switch over, please beware that you may be another victim of Kotak’s restrictive and unethical practices.” Citing a ‘shocking’ case, it said that for a total exposure of Rs 3.50 crores of a MSME borrower, Rs 59 lakh was demanded as non-compliance charges just to allow an exit from Kotak. “In some cases, foreclosure charges have been demanded even after the loan agreement had expired, or even when Kotak fully knew that such a practice will be in breach of the Banking Code,” FISME said.
