Kotak Mahindra Bank has recommended senior executives Anup Saha and Paritosh Kashyap to the RBI for the MD and CEO position
Saha heads retail banking and joined Kotak in 2026, while Kashyap leads wholesale banking and has spent around 31 years at Kotak
The RBI will decide whether to ask the bank to submit additional names before Ashok Vaswani’s term ends on December 31
Kotak Mahindra Bank has recommended two of its senior executives, Anup Saha and Paritosh Kashyap, to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the position of Managing Director and CEO, as per a report by CNBC-TV18.
It is not clear whether the private-sector lender has also proposed any external candidate as part of the succession process, the report said.
1 August 2026
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The RBI will assess the two names and may approve one of them or ask the bank to submit additional candidates.
Saha currently heads Kotak Mahindra Bank’s retail banking business and serves as a Whole-time Director. He joined the bank in January 2026 after a long career at Bajaj Finance, where he held the positions of Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director. Before that, he spent several years at ICICI Bank.
Kashyap, also a Whole-time Director, heads wholesale banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank. A veteran of the Kotak Group, he has around 31 years of experience with the group, covering corporate banking, structured finance, infrastructure financing, capital structuring and securitisation.
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The RBI’s decision will determine whether the bank continues with an internal successor and which of the two executives eventually takes charge.
Vaswani’s Term Ends In December 2026
The succession exercise follows Ashok Vaswani’s decision not to seek reappointment after his current term ends on December 31, 2026.
Vaswani became Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MD and CEO on January 1, 2024, succeeding founder Uday Kotak.
Uday Kotak stepped down as CEO in September 2023 after more than two decades at the helm. Vaswani, who previously held senior roles at Barclays and Citigroup, brought more than three decades of banking and financial services experience to the position.
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What Lies Ahead
The next CEO will take charge as Kotak seeks to accelerate growth while deploying its surplus capital.
In Q1 FY27, the bank’s net advances rose 15% year-on-year and deposits increased 12%. Net interest margin stood at 4.53%, while net NPA was 0.27% and CET-1 ratio was 22.6%.
Vaswani has previously said the bank has significant surplus capital and is evaluating organic and inorganic growth opportunities.
Kotak has also increased its focus on technology and artificial intelligence following the lifting of RBI technology-related restrictions in February 2025.
