Kotak Mahindra Bank Appoints Ashok Vaswani As CEO From Jan. 1

Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. has appointed Ashok Vaswani as its managing director and chief executive officer from Jan. 1.

The bank's board met on Friday and appointed Vaswani for a period of three years, subject to the approval of the members of the bank, according to an exchange filing.

The Reserve Bank of India cleared Vaswani's name for the post on Oct. 21 and the bank had to appoint him before Jan. 1 as Dipak Gupta, interim MD and CEO, completes his term and retires on Dec. 31.

In a call after Q2 results, Gupta told reporters that Vaswani was expected to move to India and join by December.

Uday Kotak, founder MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, stepped down from the position on Sept. 2, much before his scheduled retirement on Dec. 31. Gupta was appointed in the interim till Nov. 1. However, since Vaswani was scheduled to join later, the bank applied and received RBI's to extend Gupta's term.

Vaswani served as the CEO of Barclays in the U.K. from 2016 to 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, he was also the global consumer and payments CEO for the bank. A tech specialist, he also served as the chief digital officer at Barclays.

Earlier, Vaswani was the CEO of Citigroup Asia Pacific and a member of the Citigroup Global Operating & Management Committee.