Ashok Vaswani assumes charge as Kotak Mahindra Bank's MD and CEO; key things to know about him

Ashok Vaswani- Kotak

Kotak Mahindra Bank on January 1 announced that veteran banker Ashok Vaswani has taken over as the Managing Director (MD) and CEO of the bank. He succeeded Dipak Gupta, who served as the interim MD and CEO after founder director Uday Kotak stepped down as the head of the bank, effective September 1, 2023.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October 2023 approved the appointment of Vaswani as the bank's MD and CEO for a period of three years.

Uday Kotak, founder of the bank, tweeted in October that, “I am delighted that the RBI has approved our recommendation, Ashok Vaswani, as the next 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.”

Here are a few things, you need to know about Vaswani

Vaswani brings a wealth of experience with him, having worked for three and a half decades with Citi Group and, more recently, with Barclays.

“He brings with him significant executional experience with a high degree of compliance and industrial strength across Corporate and Consumer businesses,” the Kotak Bank exchange filing said.

At Barclays Bank in the UK, Vaswani served as the CEO of their global consumer, private, corporate, and payments business. He was also a member of the group executive committee during his tenure.

Prior to this, Vaswani served as the CEO of Citigroup Asia Pacific and was a member of both the Citigroup Global Operating Committee and management committees.

According to the exchange filing, the new MD and CEO of the private lender is currently President of Pagaya Technologies Ltd, a US-Israeli AI fintech. Vaswani 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-A-Hand.

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College degrees

Vaswani holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Economics and Accountancy, from the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics (Bombay University).

He is a CA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, CS from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and has done executive education from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Kotak Bank’s earnings

Kotak Mahindra Bank on October 21 reported a net profit of Rs 3,191 crore for the July-September FY24 quarter, up 23.66 percent from Rs 2,581 crore clocked in the year-ago period.

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The net profit beat the market estimates of Rs 3,092 crore.

The net interest income (NII) at Rs 6,297 crore, rose 23.49 percent from Rs 5,099 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The NII also came slightly higher than the market estimate of Rs 6,226 crore.

The bank's gross non-performing asset (NPA) stood at 1. 72 percent, down from 2.08 percent recorded in the same quarter last year. On the other hand, net NPA for the quarter stood at 0.37 percent, improving from 0.55 percent on a year-on-year basis.