Kotak Mahindra Bank Appoints Ashok Vaswani as MD and CEO, Becoming First Permanent Non-Founder Chief Executive

Ashok Vaswani assumed the role of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank on 1 January 2024, becoming the bank's first permanent non-founder chief executive, following founder Uday Kotak's early exit as MD and CEO on 1 September 2023 and an interim tenure by joint managing director Dipak Gupta. Uday Kotak built the institution from a non-banking finance company into a full-service bank.

RBI rules cap a promoter's tenure as MD and CEO at 12 years, and the regulator had earlier required Uday Kotak to reduce his shareholding.

VASWANI'S BACKGROUND

Before joining Kotak Mahindra Bank, Vaswani was president of Pagaya Technologies; earlier he was chief executive of Barclays' global consumer, private, corporate and payments businesses, after two decades at Citigroup.

Uday Kotak remains a significant shareholder in the bank.