Kotak Mahindra Bank’s board has appointed Anup Kumar Saha as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for three years from January 1, 2027. The board approved the appointment on October 24, 2026, following the Reserve Bank of India’s approval, which the bank announced on October 1. The appointment now goes to shareholders. At the same meeting, the board re-appointed Ashu Suyash as an Independent Director for a second term.
Saha already knows the bank from the inside. He joined Kotak in January 2026 as a Whole-time Director (Executive Director), and since March he has overseen the Retail Bank, Data Analytics and Marketing. Ashok Vaswani, the current MD and CEO, said Saha has worked closely with the bank’s teams and will lead it forward “with purpose and discipline.”
He brings more than 32 years of experience, 25 of them in banking and non-banking financial services. Before Kotak, he held a series of senior roles at Bajaj Finance, ending as Managing Director and CEO. Before that, he spent 14 years at ICICI Bank, leading Retail Secured Assets, Business Intelligence, Retail and Rural Collections, Credit Cards and Retail Structured Finance. He began his career at Bharat Heavy Electricals and GE Capital, and holds a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow.
Herald View
Kotak has chosen a leader built in retail banking. Saha’s career at ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance centred on consumer lending, and at Kotak he already runs the retail bank. The appointment points clearly to where the bank sees its next phase of growth: with customers, at scale.
