Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank plans to double its NRI customer base to 1 lakh this year in a bid to generate more revenues at lower cost, said an official fo the bank.

"These (NRIs) are affluent customers and offer us opportunity to cross sell multiple products. Right now, we have 50,000 NRI accounts and we are taking concerted efforts to take it to 1 lakh by end-2011," the bank's Group Head, Consumer Banking , K V S Manian said.

He said that the average revenue earned from a NRI customer is three times that of a domestic customer, along with the fact the cost of servicing an overseas customer is low as they do not depend on branch banking and make utmost usage of the technological platform.

He added saying that NRIs are also potential customers of other products of the bank owing to the large amount of money they have.

Presently NRI deposits form 12% of the savings book of the bank."Through the new customer acquisitions, we plan to take it up to 15 per cent by this year end," added Manian.

"We do want to have an overseas branch but have not crystallised our plans yet," Manian said, adding currently the KMB's international presence is restricted to a representative office in Dubai.