Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank on Thursday said the Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Anup Kumar Saha as managing director and chief executive officer for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2027.

The private lender said its board will now take further steps to formalise the appointment and seek shareholders’ approval.

Saha is currently a whole-time director and executive director at Kotak Mahindra Bank. He joined the lender in January 2026 and has been overseeing its retail banking, data analytics and marketing functions since March.

“I am grateful to the Board for the trust placed in me and delighted to have the opportunity to lead Kotak Mahindra Bank,” Saha said in a statement. “Kotak has a strong franchise, a trusted brand and talented teams across the organisation.”

He said the bank would focus on deepening customer relationships, execution and building sustainable value for shareholders and other stakeholders.

Kotak had submitted two names to the RBI for the top job in order of preference, with Saha as its first choice. The second candidate was Paritosh Kashyap, executive director and head of corporate banking at the lender.

Saha will succeed Ashok Vaswani, whose term as managing director and CEO ends on December 31, 2026.

Vaswani said Saha brings deep experience across financial services businesses, customer segments and operating functions.

“Since joining Kotak, he has worked closely with our teams and demonstrated a clear understanding of the opportunities ahead,” Vaswani said. “I am confident that Anup will build on Kotak’s strong foundations, deepen its customer relationships and lead the Bank forward with purpose and discipline.”

Saha has more than 32 years of professional experience, including 25 years in financial services across banking and non-banking financial companies.

Before joining Kotak, he held several senior leadership roles at Bajaj Finance and was eventually appointed managing director and CEO. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at ICICI Bank, where his responsibilities included retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail and rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance.

Earlier in his career, Saha worked with GE Capital across credit cards, sales and analytics, and with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd in production engineering.

He holds a BTech degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow.