Anup Kumar Saha to be next MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank; RBI clears appointment

Anup Kumar Saha | Photo Credit: Special arrangement The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. for a period of three years, effective January 1, 2027, the bank said in a statement on Thursday (October 1, 2026). The Board of Directors of the Bank will initiate further steps in due course, to formalise the aforesaid appointment and also seek members’ approval for the same, it said. Mr. Saha will replace Ashok Vaswani whose term as Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Managing Director & CEO will end on December 31, 2026. He had not sought a re-appointment due to personal reasons. The veteran banker had replaced Uday Kotak in January 2024. Mr. Saha, who joined the bank in January 2026, is currently Whole-time Director (Executive Director) of Kotak Mahindra Bank. He has overseen the Retail Bank, Data Analytics and Marketing functions since March.He has over 32 years of professional experience, including 25 years in financial services across banking and non-banking financial institutions. Before joining Kotak, he held a series of senior leadership roles at Bajaj Finance Ltd culminating in his appointment as Managing Director & CEO. During his 14 years at ICICI Bank Ltd, Mr. Saha led businesses and functions spanning Retail Secured Assets, Business Intelligence, Retail and Rural Collections, Credit Cards and Retail Structured Finance.Earlier in his career, he worked with GE Capital across credit cards, sales and analytics and with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd in production engineering. He holds a B. Tech degree in Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Published - October 01, 2026 10:31 am IST