Ashok Vaswani to be Kotak Bank’s new CEO

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, October 21

Kotak Mahindra Bank has announced the RBI’s approval for the appointment of Ashok Vaswani, a person from outside its ranks, as the replacement of legendary Uday Kotak as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) for three years.

Uday Kotak, a doyen of the private banking industry, had last month suddenly quit as CEO and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, the country’s fourth largest bank. In a hand-written three page-letter to company Chairman Prakash Apte, he had named Joint Managing Director Dipak Gupta as his successor till a regular replacement is appointed.

Vaswani, who has worked with Barclays in the recent past, has been abroad for some years and is at present President of a US-Israeli Fintech and is also a board member of several companies, besides backing several philanthropic organisations. Interim MD Gupta and bank founder Uday Kotak hailed Vaswani as a world-class banker with digital and customer focus.

Uday Kotak’s term as MD and CEO was anyway coming to an end on December 1 because after the Yes Bank’s meltdown, the RBI has limited top tenures in private banks to a maximum of 15 years. However, Kotak will continue to exert an influence as he is now a non-executive director and also holds 26% of the bank’s equity.