Uday Kotak, Asia's richest banker, multiplied his wealth four times in a decade

• Uday kotak kickstarted a financial consultancy to provide cheap loans to companies at the age of 23.
  
• The 60-year-old Uday Kotak is the richest banker in Asia with wealth of $11.8 billion, according to forbes.
  
• His net worth grew by 268% from $3 billion in 2010 to $ 11.8 billion in 2019, primarily because of the increased value of his shareholding in Kotak Mahindra Bank.
  

If not for his father, Asia’s richest banker Uday Kotak would have been working for Hindustan Unilever. While HUL could have gained from it, that was not to be. Uday’s father Suresh Kotak, convinced him to open his own business at 300 sq. ft office space.

The 23 year old kickstarted a financial consultancy to provide cheap loans to companies. When he started in 1985, the interest rates for loans were very high. On the other hand, depositors too gained next to nothing from banks and deposit rates were low.

"I was shocked to find that triple-A-rated borrowers would get money at 17% when families I knew would only get 6% interest on their money," he told the Financial Times.

The idea to fix both these gaps, turned out to be revolutionary. Today, Kotak Mahindra Bank is the third most valued private bank in India, serving 14.5 million customers. It has over 1400 branches and $51 million assets as of 2019. '