The Succession of Kotak Mahindra Bank has been a hot topic for a long time now, but now it has been put to rest. The Reserve Bank Of India has appointed Ashok Vaswani as the new CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, replacing the billionaire founder Uday Kotak. Vaswani, the former Chief Digital Officer at Barclays Bank in the USA, is now appointed as the new managing director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Many were surprised by the decision as Vaswani was an outsider and the bank had an internal candidate who was expected to succeed. However, the founder of Kotak Bank, Uday Kotak seems delighted by the choice as he tweeted, “ I am proud that we bring a ‘Global Indian’ home to build Kotak and India of tomorrow.” Uday Kotak also added to his statement that goal is for Kotak Mahindra Bank to play a significant role in India’s journey to become one of the three largest economies in the world.
Vaswani comes to Kotak Mahindra Bank as the former president of the US-Israeli fintech company Pagaya Technologies. Vawani was born and brought up in India. He graduated from the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, where he qualified as a chartered accountant, as well as a company secretary.
This decision comes after the implementation of a rule by the RBI in 2021 which capped the tenure of a Owner-CEO to 15 years. At the time, Kotak had already been the CEO for 18 years and was granted time till December this year but chose to step down earlier.