Meet Ashok Vaswani who replaces Uday Kotak as CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank

Ashok Vaswani- Kotak

Kotak Mahindra Bank on October 21 announced the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as the new managing director and chief executive officer for the period of three years.

Vaswani will replace Uday Kotak after the latter stepped down from the post in September.

The new MD and CEO will take charge with effect from the date, which shall not be later than January 1, 2024, as per the BSE exchange filing by the private lender.

Uday Kotak, founder of the bank, tweeted, “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 has a three-and-a-half-decade experience 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, UK, Vaswani was associated as the Chief Executive Officer of their Global Consumer, Private, Corporate and Payments business and a member of the group executive committee.

Prior to this, Vaswani was CEO, Citigroup Asia Pacific and a member of the Citigroup Global Operating & 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.

Also read: Banking Central | As Uday Kotak’s successor, Ashok Vaswani has big shoes to fill

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.