About

Kotak Mahindra Bank was converted as a Bank from an existing non-banking financial company (NBFC). The existing businesses of the NBFC continued in the bank and new businesses like branch banking and retail liabilities, treasury desk, and some priority sector lending businesses, as prescribed by regulation, were added. At this point there were separate legal teams and Bhargesh Ojha, as head of the corporate legal team, led them and their work on the new business areas of the Bank and some group companies. In 2015, ING Vysya Bank merged with Kotak and their legal team was also absorbed. At this juncture it was decided that all diverse legal teams at Kotak Bank (including the ING Vysya legal team) would be merged into one legal function effective in September 2015, creating a legal team of about 125 team members. Ojha was assigned the job of creating the organisation structure for this unified legal department and achieving it in 45 days which he achieved. He created five teams each headed by a deputy for distinct areas of businesses to service consisting of consumer, commercial, corporate, investment and treasury, branch banking, and recoveries and resolution. This consolidation has helped in scaling efficiencies at the Bank through the streamlining of processes, heightened service quality to the internal clients as this one team is able to provide more knowledge and better execution abilities in its service. Ojha’s restructuring has also enabled efficient distribution via a digitised platform for the department’s internal workings and acquiring a contract management system, a litigation management system both being centralised repositories and alert monitoring systems, and an external lawyer appointment system. All these helping to save cost, and increase speed and quality from the legal team. Ojha also created a common mortgage platform across all businesses and constituted a “Crack Team” to supervise all cases against the Bank so that there is a unified and converged approach. These changes have led to process streamlining, scaling efficiencies, reduction in costs, introducing digitisation, enabling the legal team to service its internal clients with shorter TATs, wider and specialised knowledge, high quality of services and focussed execution of business centric solutions. Major transactions the newly consolidated team has tackled include the Kotak Manhindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Company (Kotak Life) which involved a termination of the joint venture and its legal implications, and the acquisition of BSS Microfinance which involved quick thinking due to unexpected complications showing the resilience of the team under Ojha’s leadership. He identifies that, ‘as general counsel, I am not only the leader but also a mentor to my team. Leading the legal function requires me to extend this leadership to the entire Kotak Group by being a strategic advisor to all business groups by giving comprehensive and in- depth legal advice, initiating and implementing sound and innovative legal processes and giving business centric solutions’.