Who is Ashok Vaswani? The newly appointed CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank

Uday Kotak-founded Kotak Mahindra Bank today announced that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as the Bank’s next Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO).

According to the bank's statement, Vaswani has been appointed for a period of three years and will take charge of the new role before January 1, 2024.

Why Kotak appointed Ashok Vaswani?

Ashok, who has a experience of three and a half decades, worked at Citigroup and more recently, at Barclays, where he contribution towards 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.

The bank said that Ashok brings with him significant executional experience with high degree of compliance and industrial strength across corporate and vonsumer businesses. 

Prakash Apte, Chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “We are pleased to announce that RBI has approved the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as the next MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank. Ashok is a global banking leader with a proven track record of building and growing businesses at an international scale and has successfully steered organisations to greater heights. We are confident that Ashok will accelerate change and drive growth at Kotak.”

Dipak Gupta, Managing Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank said “We welcome Ashok to the Kotak family. Ashok brings with him values and experience that align with Kotak’s vision to transform into a tech-enabled, customer centric financial institution for the future. “

Uday Kotak's resignation

The development comes almost two months after Indian billionaire Uday Kotak announced his departure from Kotak Mahindra Bank as the managing director (MD) and the chief executive officer (CEO).

Uday Kotak, Founder and Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank said “I am delighted that the RBI has approved our recommendation, Ashok Vaswani, as the next MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank. 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.”

Who is Ashok Vaswani?

Ashok was Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank, UK and subsequently CEO of their Global Consumer, Private, Corporate and Payments businesses and Member of the Group Executive Committee.

Earlier, Ashok was CEO Citigroup Asia Pacific and Member of the Citigroup Global Operating & Management Committees. He also built and ran various country and regional businesses across geographies. Currently, he is President of Pagaya Technologies Ltd - a US-Israeli AI Fintech.

Ashok is also on the Board of the London Stock Exchange Group, the SP Jain Institute of Global Management, UK and supports various philanthropic organisations, including Pratham, and Lend-AHand.

He is a Bachelor of Commerce, Economics and Accountancy, from the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics (Bombay University), CA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, CS from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Executive Education from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Ashok Vaswani said, “I thank the Board for entrusting me with the responsibility of leading Kotak Mahindra Bank’s journey to the next phase of growth. I am excited and honoured to carry forward the legacy of Uday who has built this 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 3 economies in the world in the next 5 years, delivering shareholder value. At a personal level, l am delighted to come back home.”