Anup Kumar Saha will take over as managing director and chief executive of Kotak Mahindra Bank from January 1, 2027, after the Reserve Bank of India approved his appointment. The bank informed the exchanges on Thursday that the RBI had cleared him for a period of three years. 

Saha, 32 years into his career, is currently a full-time director at Kotak. He will succeed Ashok Vaswani, whose term ends next year. The board will now take further steps to formalise the appointment and seek shareholder approval, the bank said.

RBI approves Anup Saha 

Banks must propose at least two names for the top job, and the regulator approves one. According to Mint, Kotak had sent the names of executive directors Anup Saha and Paritosh Kashyap to the RBI last month.

Kotak is India’s fourth-largest private sector bank, according to Mint. Under Vaswani, it had set itself the goal of becoming the third-largest private lender by after-tax profit. The new chief executive is expected to carry that ambition forward.

Saha’s role at Kotak Mahindra Bank 

Saha joined Kotak in January 2026. Since March, he has overseen the entire retail bank, government business, data analytics and marketing. Kotak’s chairman, C. S. Rajan, said Saha “has already been actively engaged with the Bank’s businesses in his current role.”

Rajan said the board looks forward to his leadership in strengthening the franchise and pursuing sustainable growth. Vaswani described him as a seasoned financial services leader with experience across businesses, customer segments and operating functions. He added that Saha had worked closely with Kotak’s teams since joining.

Saha said he was grateful for the board’s trust. He said the bank has a strong franchise, a trusted brand and talented teams. His stated focus is on deepening customer relationships and doing “the right thing” by the customer.

Anup Saha’s Bajaj Finance career 

Before Kotak, Saha was associated with Bajaj Finance from October 2017 to January 2026, according to the bank’s filing. He joined as president of consumer finance and held that role until March 2019. He then became deputy CEO, looking after consumer, MSME, marketing, operations and service, and the digital platform, from April 2019 to March 2022.

He returned to the board as executive director in April 2023 and was deputy managing director from April 2024 to March 2025. In April 2025, he became managing director and CEO. He resigned from that post in July 2025. In his executive director roles, the filing says, he was responsible for the entire standalone business of Bajaj Finance.

14 years at ICICI Bank 

Saha spent 14 years at ICICI Bank, from May 2003 to June 2017. He led retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail and rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance. The bank also nominated him to the boards of TransUnion CIBIL and ICICI Home Finance.

Early career and education

Saha began at Bharat Heavy Electricals, where he worked in production engineering from 1991 to 1995. This followed a brief stint in consumer durable sales. He later worked at GE Capital from 1999 to 2003, handling credit cards, sales and analytics.

He holds a B.Tech in engineering from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Of his 32 years of experience, 25 have been in financial services, across banks and non-banking lenders.

The institution he will lead

Kotak Mahindra Group was established in 1985. As of June 30, 2026, it had 5,916 branches and a consolidated balance sheet of Rs 10.1 lakh crore. Its businesses span banking and lending, capital markets, asset management and protection.