Kotak Mahindra gets $51 mn credit from WB entity

As a first initiative of its kind in India, a World Bank entity will provide credit facility of up to $51 million to Kotak Mahindra Bank to help small and medium enterprises, hit hard by the global financial crisis, meet their export and import obligations.

The International Finance Corporation's credit facility would provide the private sector bank with risk coverage and access to a global network to help grow its trade finance business, the bank said in a statement today.

"The trade facility will improve Kotak’s ability to provide short-term trade funding for smaller businesses, which is vital given their reduced access to foreign currency financing amid the ongoing global financial crisis," IFC Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer Lars Thunell said.

The network facilitates transactions in challenging markets, promotes competitive financing, and builds bank relationships with new institutions at low risk.

"This is the first bank IFC has supported in trade finance in India under its Global Trade Finance Program," it said.

"This important transaction, with our long-standing partner IFC, will help us provide a wider base of short-term foreign-currency trade finance products," Kotak Mahindra Bank Executive Director Dipak Gupta said.