Who will take Uday Kotak’s job?

Veteran banker Uday Kotak has headed the country's fourth largest private-sector lender, Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB), since its inception as a non-banking financial company (NBFC) in 1985. After turning into a bank in 2003, the company has grown to become a financial behemoth across segments.

With the tenure of MD and CEO Uday Kotak coming to an end, the bank is currently hunting for a new CEO. Kotak is set to hang up its boots by the end of 2023.

In November 2022, KVS Manian, Whole-time Director, Kotak Bank, said that Jay Kotak, Uday Kotak's son, will not be a contender for the position, at least for now. According to Bloomberg, in February 2023 the bank roped in Egon Zehnder, a global search firm, to find a new chief.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has a strong line-up of experienced executives heading different verticals and at least two senior executives who could be potential contenders for the top job. There are market speculations that whole-time directors Shanti Ekambaram and KVS Manian are among the top contenders for the post.

Against this backdrop, Moneycontrol looks at the bank's management depth and its key vertical heads.

Uday Kotak, MD and CEO

The veteran banker is considered one of the giants of the Indian banking sector. Kotak, who is also Asia’s richest banker as per the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index, 2022, headed Kotak Mahindra Finance through stages like its initial public offering (IPO) in 1992, conversion of the NBFC into a bank in 2003, and more.

Dipak Gupta, Joint MD

Gupta wears a lot of hats: head of IT, cyber security, customer experience, business intelligence, and more. Before this, Gupta worked on the partnership between Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd (KMFL) and Ford Credit International to form Kotak Mahindra Primus Limited, the vehicle loan subsidiary of the bank.

KVS Manian, Group President and Whole Time Director

Manian is credited to have played a crucial role in Kotak’s journey from an NBFC to a bank by setting up the retail liabilities and branch banking business. As Whole-time Director, he heads investment banking, institutional equities, and some NBFC businesses of the group.

Under Manian’s leadership, Kotak has grown its presence significantly in the above verticals over years.

Shanti Ekambaram, Group President and Whole Time Director

Ekambaram heads Kotak 811 (a digital savings account), public affairs, marketing and communications, environment social & governance (ESG), and corporate social responsibility (CSR) verticals. Previously, Ekambaram set up several of the lender’s business segments and was the head of the corporate and investment banking business.

Jaimin Bhatt, Group President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

As the CFO, Bhatt looks after finance, tax, strategy, legal, operations, and facilities of the bank, and is also part of Kotak Group Management Council. Bhatt has been associated with the bank for 26 years, and has been the CFO for 20 years.

Paul Parambi, Group President and Chief Risk Officer (CRO)

Parambi heads risk management for the bank, and is responsible for defining the framework and the practices for the same. Other than this, he is the convener of the risk management committee, and is a member of the credit and fraud management committees.

Virat Diwanji, Group President and Head, Consumer Banking

The October-December 2022 quarterly result of the bank showed that customer assets of the consumer banking segment had grown 20 percent year-on-year to Rs 28,940 crore, from Rs 24,053 crore in the corresponding quarter in 2021. Diwanji has been with the bank for 18 years, and has worked on major projects like the integration of ING Vysya Bank’s retail distribution network with KMB’s branch banking network, among others.

Oisharya Das, Group President and CEO, Private Banking

The private banking business of the bank, which caters to ultra-high net worth and high net worth individuals (UHNI and HNI), is managed by Das. Das has also worked in the company’s private banking business, both in India and overseas, and managed client relations at a national and global level.

The bank, which started digital banking in 2017, is a major player in the segment. Digital solutions, a key segment under its private banking vertical, has been responsible for a large chunk of deposits over the years. For instance, in the quarter ended December 2022, 90 percent of the recurring deposits (RD) were booked through digital banking, whereas in the corresponding quarter of 2021, the number was 81 percent..

Ramesh Srinivasan, MD and CEO, Investment Banking

KMB started the investment banking vertical in 1991. Srinivasan, after joining the Kotak Mahindra group in 1995, worked on building the vertical and is a pioneer of the Indian equity capital markets.

In the October-December 2022 quarter, the investment banking arm, Kotak Investment Advisors, recorded capital reserves of Rs 800 crore, up from Rs 744 crore in 2021. In November 2022, it secured a total funding of $3.3 billion for its real estate fund series.

In early February 2023, Kotak Alternate Assets, also part of the investment banking vertical, raised $590 million in Kotak Data Centre Fund, a fund to open 5-6 data centres in India.

Paritosh Kashyap, President and Head, Wholesale Banking

Kashyap serves as the President of the lender’s wholesale banking vertical and Business Head of its debt capital markets business. Corporate banking, a crucial segment under Kashyap, delivered a marginal 2 percent growth, with assets of Rs 69,987 crore in the October-December 2022 quarter, up from Rs 68,529 crore in 2021. However, the small and medium enterprise (SME) grew by 25 percent, from Rs 18,560 crore in 2021 to Rs 23,154 crore in 2022.

Shekhar Bhandari, President, Global Transaction Banking

As head of Global Transaction Banking, Bhandari is responsible for foreign exchange business, international trade finance, new-age firms, and other segments.

The bank’s global banking arm, Kotak International Business, reported capital reserves of Rs 1,722 crore for the October-December 2022 quarter, up from Rs 1,490 crore in 2021.