Kotak Mahindra Bank targets 5x stress-test capacity by March 2026

Kotak Mahindra Bank plans to raise its core banking system’s stress-tested capacity to four-to-five times by March 2026, from an already scale-certified three times today. The bank’s CTO highlighted a year of zero outages, a deliberate move away from vendor-led legacy systems to in-house engineering, and AI-driven fraud checks in under six seconds.

This expansion aligns with regulatory expectations around stress testing under Basel III, where capacity and resilience under stress scenarios are central to supervisory review and market discipline. The bank’s focus on scale certification supports operational readiness for higher workloads and peak demand, while bolstering liquidity and funding resilience frameworks such as LCR and NSFR over differing time horizons.

Key highlights

- Capacity goal: Stress-tested capacity to reach 4–5x by March 2026, from 3x
currently.

- Operational resilience: Zero outages reported over the past year.

- Tech pivot: Reduced reliance on vendor legacy systems; in-house engineering emphasis.

- AI risk controls: Fraud detection executed in under six seconds.

- Regulatory alignment: Stress-testing and scale certification consistent with Basel III expectations; supports LCR/NSFR resilience.

Sources: The Financial Express; Financial Express Chandigarh (Magzter reprint); Kotak Mahindra Bank Investor Relations regulatory disclosures