Kotak Mahindra Bank’s CEO Ashok Vaswani to step down at year-end

Kotak Mahindra Bank’s managing director and CEO Ashok Vaswani on Saturday announced to 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 board has, at its meeting held on Saturday, respected his decision and initiated the process of identifying a new managing director and CEO. “The process will be completed within applicable regulatory timelines,” the bank said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

Vaswani took charge of the bank from veteran and interim MD and CEO Dipak Gupta, who was part of founder Uday’s Kotak’s original team, on January 1, 2024. Uday Kotak had stepped down from his role as MD & CEO on September 1, 2023.

Vaswani’s biggest challenge has been not just to build a new team–out of the shadow of Uday Kotak–but also build scale which would take Kotak Mahindra Bank closer to its nearest rival Axis Bank.

“Vaswani has broadly been able to achieve only some elements of that plan, but there are more challenges for the Bank which include growing both organically and inorganically and building the alternate assets segment,” a banking analyst, at a mutual fund house, said on condition of anonymity.

Kotak Mahindra Bank was one of the possible suitors whose name was mentioned to acquire the retail business of Deutsche Bank for Rs 3,500 crore. But this deal is yet to take place and Kotak Mahindra Bank has officially declined to comment on the deal.

Vaswani, an industry veteran, has held leadership roles at Citigroup, Barclays and Pagaya Technologies. At Barclays, he led the transformation to digital from analog, redesigning tech architecture and customer journeys. He was the CEO of Barclays UK and later of its global consumer, private, corporate and payments businesses. At Citigroup, he had served as CEO (Asia Pacific).

In Q4 FY26, the bank reported an 8% y-o-y rise in net interest income at Rs 7,876 crore, while the net interest margin rose to 4.67%.