HDFC, Kotak get new CEOs named Anup. Here are 5 more things they have in common

HDFC Bank has appointed Anup Bagchi as its Managing Director and CEO for a three-year term starting October 27, 2026. Kotak Mahindra Bank has appointed Anup Kumar Saha as its MD and CEO for three years from January 1, 2027.Anup Bagchi, incoming CEO, HDFC Bank one lft and Anup Kumar Saha, incoming CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank on right. New Delhi,Oct 2, 2026 15:42 ISTHDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have named new CEOs, and the two appointments have thrown up an unusual coincidence: both incoming chiefs are named Anup, are 55 years old, have studied at an IIT and an IIM, and spent a significant part of their careers at ICICI Bank.HDFC Bank has appointed Anup Bagchi as its Managing Director and CEO for a three-year term starting October 27, 2026. Kotak Mahindra Bank has appointed Anup Kumar Saha as its MD and CEO for three years from January 1, 2027. The similarities do not end with their first names.Both Bagchi and Saha are former ICICI Bank executives who went on to hold senior leadership positions elsewhere before being picked to lead two of India's largest private-sector banks. The coincidence was also highlighted by the Times of India, which reported that both are 55 years old and hail from West Bengal. (The Times of India)BOTH HAVE ICICI BANK IN THEIR CAREER HISTORYBagchi has spent more than three decades with the ICICI Group. He joined the group in 1992 and served as an Executive Director at ICICI Bank from 2017 to 2023. At ICICI Bank, he oversaw Retail, Business and Rural Banking before moving to Wholesale Banking. He also served as CEO and MD of ICICI Securities and is currently MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Saha, meanwhile, spent 14 years at ICICI Bank between May 2003 and June 2017. During his stint, he held senior roles across retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail and rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance. After leaving ICICI Bank, Saha joined Bajaj Finance in 2017 and rose through the ranks to become its Managing Director and CEO. He joined Kotak Mahindra Bank in January 2026 as a whole-time director and was overseeing the retail bank, government business, data analytics and marketing before being named CEO. So while both men are now heading rival private-sector banks, a sizeable part of their banking careers was built at the same institution.BOTH ARE IIT AND IIM ALUMNIThere is another striking similarity in their educational backgrounds.Bagchi holds an engineering degree from IIT Kanpur and a management degree from IIM Bangalore. Saha is an engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur and holds an MBA from IIM Lucknow. In other words, both new bank chiefs followed a broadly similar academic route, engineering at an IIT followed by management education at an IIM, although they attended different institutions.BOTH ARE 55Age is another common link.HDFC Bank's profile of Bagchi and an ICICI Prudential Life filing list him as 55.Kotak Mahindra Bank's postal ballot documents list Saha's age as 55 years. The Times of India also highlighted the fact that both incoming CEOs are 55. The career paths of the two Anups have since taken different directions.Bagchi moved through several parts of financial services, including investment banking, retail and wholesale banking, capital markets and insurance. His most recent role has been at ICICI Prudential Life before moving to HDFC Bank.Saha moved from ICICI Bank to Bajaj Finance, where he spent more than eight years in senior roles before joining Kotak. At Bajaj Finance, he eventually became MD and CEO.Their next chapters will now unfold at two major private-sector lenders.Bagchi will succeed Sashidhar Jagdishan at HDFC Bank, while Saha will take over from Ashok Vaswani at Kotak Mahindra Bank. Both appointments have received RBI approval, with shareholder approval forming part of the formal process. (India Today)And that leaves an unusually neat coincidence in India's banking sector: two major private banks, two new CEOs, both named Anup, both 55, both IIT-IIM graduates and both with ICICI Bank in their professional history.- Ends