Ashok Vaswani has been appointed by the RBI as the new MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank

23 Oct 2023 , 10:10 AM

Ashok Vaswani has been appointed for a three-year term as managing director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) with the approval of the Reserve Bank of India.

According to KMB in a regulatory filing, the appointment will take effect as of the day of taking over, which cannot be later than January 1, 2024.

The Bank will be led by an outsider for the first time in its 20 or so years of operation. Both Kotak Group veterans and Full-Time Directors on the Bank’s Board, KVS Manian and Shanti Ekambaram, were largely regarded as leading candidates for the CEO role.

According to the filing, the Reserve Bank of India ‘has…approved the appointment of Mr. Ashok Vaswani as the Managing Director & CEO of the Bank based on our application presented to it for the approval of the new Managing Director & CEO of the Bank on July 19, 2023.

According to a statement from KMB, ‘Vaswani has a proven track record spanning three and a half decades, initially at Citigroup and more recently, at Barclays, of building and growing global businesses at scale, nurturing winning teams, establishing transformational partnerships, leveraging forward-leaning technology, with a compelling business vision to deliver strong bottom-line growth.’

Vaswani was Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank, UK and subsequently CEO of their Global Consumer, Private, Corporate and Payments businesses and Member of the Group Executive Committee. Earlier, He was CEO Citigroup Asia Pacific and Member of the Citigroup Global Operating & Management Committees. Currently, he is President of Pagaya Technologies Ltd – a US-Israeli AI Fintech. 

Vaswani is a Bachelor of Commerce, Economics and Accountancy, from the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics (Bombay University), CA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, CS from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Executive Education from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

‘I am pleased that the RBI has approved our recommendation, Ashok Vaswani, as the next MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank,’ stated Uday Kotak, KMB’s founder and director. Ashok is a top-tier banker and leader who puts the needs of his clients first. I’m pleased that we are bringing a ‘Global Indian’ home to help create Kotak and the India of the future.

The selection of an external candidate is a board decision that has been made after careful consideration and deliberation, Dipak Gupta, MD & CEO, KMB, emphasized.

‘The attitude, I believe, that we are trying to convey is that there are many changes taking place in the banking environment, and it is crucial for us to bring in talent from around the world to handle some of those changes.

‘In-house knowledge already exists in a number of fields. We need to keep using this knowledge. The Bank of Tomorrow must pursue difficulties beyond those that are internal and domestic; it must be prepared for all types of challenges, including those brought on by fintech and client expectations, among others, he added. However, we need to combine it with global knowledge.

Gupta emphasized that Manian and Ekambaram’s positions have not changed and they are still members of the Board.

Vaswani commented on his appointment by saying, ‘With our tested leadership team, we will grow the bank to new heights. In order to maximize shareholder value, we will make sure that Kotak Mahindra Bank contributes significantly to India’s ascent to one of the top three economies in the world during the next five years. On a personal level, I’m thrilled to return home.

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