Two private sector lenders, Axis Bank Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, are conducting pilot transactions. They are experimenting in various business segments, to establish whether there is a business model for blockchain in India.

Kotak Mahindra Bank cut its base rate by 10 bps to 9.40% per annum, effective immediately. With this, the bank said that "all categories of loans (other than the exceptions permitted by RBI) will be priced with reference to the revised base rate.

The announcement comes just a month after another private sector bank, IDFC Bank, acquired Grama Vidiyal Micro Finance. However, unlike IDFC Bank’s acquisition, KMB said BSS Microfinance will not merge with it, but operate as a subsidiary.

This is for the first time that a domestic lender has come up with such facility where a customer can open a bank account using its application.

Nifty PSU Bank index was the largest gainer among sectoral indices, up 0.7% at 10am. By comparison, the benchmark index, the Nifty 50 was trading 0.1% lower at 8,930 levels.

“Kotak Mahindra Bank has informed the exchange that RBI has informed the bank that it has granted approval to CPPIB for acquiring shares in excess of five per cent and below 10 of the paid up capital of the bank,” said the bank in a notice to the exchanges.

The bank said in a regulatory filing that at the Board of Directors meeting held on July 21, it had sought consent of the shareholders to borrow the money.

The listing will take place at the NSE in presence of L&T Group Executive Chairman A M Naik and other top officials along with merchant bankers.

The bank’s net profit for the fourth quarter rose to Rs.695.78 crore, as compared with Rs.527.14 crore a year ago.