Anup Kumar Saha Gets RBI Nod as Kotak Mahindra Bank MD & CEO
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2027. Saha will succeed Ashok Vaswani, whose term as MD & CEO ends on December 31, 2026. The appointment remains subject to the bank completing the required formalities and obtaining shareholders’ approval.
Saha is currently a Whole-Time Director and Executive Director at Kotak Mahindra Bank. He joined the bank in January 2026 and, since March, has been responsible for functions including retail banking, government business, data analytics and marketing. Kotak had submitted two candidates to the RBI for consideration, with Saha listed as its first preference and Paritosh Kashyap, Executive Director and Head of Corporate Banking, as the second candidate.
Saha brings more than 32 years of professional experience, including around 25 years in financial services across banking and non-banking financial institutions. Before joining Kotak, he held senior positions at Bajaj Finance, ultimately serving as its Managing Director and CEO. Earlier, he spent around 14 years with ICICI Bank, where his responsibilities included retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail and rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance. He also worked with GE Capital and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd earlier in his career.
Saha holds a BTech from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Following the RBI approval, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s board will undertake the remaining steps to formalise his appointment and seek members’ approval.
The leadership transition comes as Kotak Mahindra Bank continues to develop its retail banking, data and technology capabilities. Saha’s current portfolio includes data analytics alongside retail banking and marketing, areas that are increasingly relevant to customer acquisition, digital banking, credit decisioning and risk management. The appointment therefore represents a leadership transition at one of India’s major private-sector banks, with the new MD & CEO’s tenure scheduled to begin in January 2027.
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