Kotak Mahindra Bank is set to appoint international banker Ashok Vaswani as its new managing director and chief executive officer. The announcement comes a little over a month after Uday Kotak, the founder MD and CEO of the private sector lender had announced his resignation.
"The Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as the Bank’s next MD & CEO. This is for a period of three years from date of taking charge, which shall not be later than January 1, 2024," Kotak Bank announced on Saturday.
Billionaire banker Kotak had surprised everyone on September 2, announcing he was stepping down as the MD and CEO; he was due to retire in December. Kotak had been the MD and CEO of the bank since August 2002 and RBI rules effective 2021 now cap the maximum term for bank CEOs at 15 years.
The lender had said at the time of Kotak stepping down that the joint MD of the bank Dipak Gupta would take charge as MD and CEO till December. Reports had suggested then that K.V.S. Manian and Shanti Ekambaram, the two whole-time directors on the board of the bank were the top contenders to succeed Kotak.
However, instead of choosing someone from within, the lender has opted to hire someone who has a global banking experience.
Ashok Vaswani has a career spanning over three and a half decades. He was the CEO of British bank Barclays between 2016-2019 and subsequently the CEO of their global consumer and payments businesses between 2019-2021.
Earlier, he was CEO of Citigroup Asia Pacific and member of the Citigroup Global Operating and Management Committees. Currently, he is President of Pagaya Technologies Ltd -a US-Israeli AI fintech.
Thanking the board for giving him the responsibility to lead Kotak Mahindra Bank, Vaswani said he was "excited and honoured" to carry forward the legacy of Uday Kotak, who had built a "world-class institution."
"With our proven leadership team we will take the bank to new heights. We will ensure that Kotak Mahindra Bank plays a meaningful role in India’s journey to being one of the top three economies in the world in the next five years, delivering shareholder value," he said.
The lender said Vaswani has a proven track record 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.
It further said that he brings with him significant executional experience with high degree of compliance and industrial strength across corporate and consumer businesses.
"Ashok is a world class leader and banker with digital and customer focus. I am proud that we bring a 'Global Indian' home to build Kotak and India of tomorrow," said Mr Kotak.
Born in India, Vaswani has bachelors of commerce in Economics from Mumbai's Sydenham College. He has done CA and CS too, while also getting executive education from the Stanford University. His daughter works in the USA.
Meanwhile, Kotak Bank on Saturday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 4,461 crore in the July-September quarter, up 24 per cent from a year ago. On a standalone basis, the net profit stood at Rs 3,191 crore, up 24 per cent from the Rs 2,581 crore profit it reported in the year ago quarter.
The bank's net interest income in the second quarter rose 23 per cent from a year ago to Rs 6,297 crore from Rs 5,099 crore.
