Kotak Mahindra Bank appoints Anup Saha as MD & CEO; to take charge on Jan 1

The Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as the Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank for a period of three years. The appointment is effective from January 1, 2027, after current MD & CEO Ashok Vaswani completes his term on December 31.

Saha, widely tipped to be Vaswani’s successor, is currently whole-time director (Executive Director) of Kotak Mahindra Bank. He joined the bank in January 2026 and since March 2026 has overseen the retail bank, data analytics and marketing functions.

A seasoned banking and finance executive

Prior to joining Kotak Mahindra Bank, Saha held a series of senior leadership roles at Bajaj Finance, where he spent more than seven years. Before that, during his 14 years at ICICI Bank Limited, he led businesses and functions spanning retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail and rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance.

Earlier in his career, Saha worked with GE Capital across credit cards, sales and analytics and with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited in production engineering.

Challenges ahead

On June 27, Vaswani had informed the board of the bank that, for personal reasons, he will not seek re-appointment upon completion of his current term on December 31, 2026.

The incoming CEO will have to tackle some existing challenges at the bank. Data shows that the bank has been unable to build its liability franchise in a fast and meaningful manner. The high-level of indebtedness in the microfinance sector over the past two years and the implementation of guardrails has forced the bank to reduce its exposure to micro-loans. It also had to move away from aggressive unsecured lending activity.

Kotak Mahindra Bank is the only Indian private sector lender which retains the family names of its promoters. While it operates across the spectrum of financial services, including investment banking, asset management, life and general insurance, alternate assets, brokerage and research, it struggles to match the ‘Big 3” of HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank in terms of core banking.

The bank, for which conservativeness and caution had been a part of its DNA even when founder Uday Kotak was at the helm, has been less aggressive in accelerating the growth of high yielding products such as unsecured loans. In this space, it has seen unsecured retail advances (as a percentage of net advances) fall to 8.8% in Q1FY27 from 11.8% in the corresponding period two years ago.

Meanwhile, C. S. Rajan, Chairman of the Board, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “As the Bank continues to build on its strong foundations we look forward to Anup’s leadership in strengthening the franchise and in pursuing sustainable growth.”

Calling Saha a seasoned financial services leader with deep experience across businesses, customer segments and operating functions, Vaswani said: “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. I wish him every success.”

Saha said, “Kotak has a strong franchise, a trusted brand and talented teams across the organisation. We will remain firmly focused on doing the right thing and getting it right by the customer.”