Kotak Mahindra Bank to elevate Anup Saha as CEO next year

Kotak Mahindra Bank on Thursday said it has received RBI approval to elevate Anup Kumar Saha as its managing director and chief executive.
Saha was appointed executive director earlier this year and has been handling the retail banking, data analytics and marketing functions. His appointment is for three years starting January 1, 2027.

He had a long stint with ICICI Bank and also worked with non-bank lender Bajaj Finance before joining Kotak Mahindra Bank. The elevation was necessitated by the decision of Ashok Vaswani, the incumbent MD and CEO, not to seek reappointment upon completion of his term.

“Since joining Kotak, he has worked closely with our teams and demonstrated a clear understanding of the opportunities ahead. I am confident that Anup will build on Kotak’s strong foundations, deepen its customer relationships and lead the Bank forward with purpose and discipline,” Vaswani said.

The bank’s chairman C S Rajan said Saha has already been actively engaged with the Bank’s businesses in his current role and the bank looks forward to his leadership to strengthen the franchise and also pursue sustainable growth. Saha said Kotak has a strong franchise, a trusted brand and talented teams across the organisation. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to deepen customer relationships, tirelessly execute and build sustainable value for shareholders and all our stakeholders,” Saha said.

The Kotak Mahindra Bank announcement closes one of the keenly watched leadership role appointments among private sector lenders. The country’s largest private sector lender HDFC Bank is also in the midst of a leadership transition and has sent two names to the RBI.

Investors cheered the clarity, and the Kotak Mahindra Bank scrip was trading 4.11 per cent up at Rs 434.75 a piece on the BSE at 1044 hrs, as against a marginal correction on the benchmark.