Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as managing director and chief executive officer (MD&CEO) of Kotak Mahindra Bank for a three-year term starting 1 January 2027.
Mr Saha is currently a whole-time director and executive director at Kotak Mahindra Bank. He will take over from the incumbent MD&CEO, Ashok Vaswani. Mr Saha joined the Bank in January 2026 and has been overseeing its retail bank, data analytics and marketing functions since March.
In a release, the Bank said its board will take the necessary steps to formally appoint Mr Saha and seek shareholders' approval.
Mr Saha will take over the leadership of the Bank as it enters its next phase under a management transition.
CS Rajan, chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said RBI's approval reflected Mr Saha's experience across banking and financial services and his involvement with the Bank's businesses since joining.
“Anup brings with him extensive experience across banking and financial services and has already been actively engaged with the Bank's businesses in his current role,” Mr Rajan said.
He added that the Bank expected Mr Saha to build on its existing franchise and focus on sustainable growth.
Kotak Mahindra Bank's MD&CEO, Mr Vaswani, described Mr Saha as a seasoned financial services executive with experience across businesses, customer segments and operating functions.
Since joining, Mr Saha has worked closely with teams across the Bank and developed an understanding of the opportunities ahead, Mr Vaswani said.
Mr Saha said he was grateful to the board for its confidence and looked forward to leading the bank.
“Kotak has a strong franchise, a trusted brand and talented teams across the organisation,” Mr Saha said. He added that his focus would be on deepening customer relationships, execution and creating sustainable value for shareholders and other stakeholders.
Mr Saha brings more than 32 years of professional experience, including 25 years in financial services across banking and non-banking financial institutions.
Before joining Kotak Mahindra Bank, he held several senior leadership positions at Bajaj Finance, where he eventually became MD&CEO.
Earlier, Mr Saha spent 14 years at ICICI Bank, where he handled businesses and functions covering retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail and rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance.
He began his career with GE Capital, working across credit cards, sales and analytics, before moving to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), where he worked in production engineering.
Mr Saha holds a BTech from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow.
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