Who Is Ashok Vaswani? Kotak Mahindra Bank Board Approves Him As New MD & CEO

The board of Kotak Mahindra Bank on Friday approved the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as a director, managing director and CEO of the bank. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the appointment of Vaswani as the bank’s MD & CEO for a period of three years.

The board of directors at their meeting on Friday appointed Vaswani as a Director and Managing Director and CEO and a Key Managerial Personnel of the bank, for a period of three years with effect from January 1, 2024, Kotak Mahindra Bank said in a regulatory filing.

This is subject to the approval of the members of the bank, it said. Vaswani, who has worked with Barclays in the recent past, will succeed Uday Kotak, who quit as the MD of the bank effective September 1.

Currently, Vaswani is the president of Pagaya Technologies Ltd — a US-Israeli AI Fintech player. He is also on the board of the London Stock Exchange Group, the SP Jain Institute of Global Management, UK, and supports various philanthropic organisations, including Pratham, and Lend a Hand.

Vaswani, 62, has a proven track record spanning three-and-a-half decades, initially at Citigroup and more recently, at Barclays, of building and growing global businesses at scale, nurturing winning teams, establishing transformational partnerships, leveraging forward-leaning technology, with a compelling business vision to deliver strong bottom-line growth.

He brings with him significant executional experience with high degree of compliance and industrial strength across corporate and consumer businesses.

Vaswani was chief executive officer of Barclays Bank, UK, and subsequently CEO of their Global Consumer, Private, Corporate and Payments businesses and Member of the Group Executive Committee. Earlier, he was CEO Citigroup Asia Pacific and Member of the Citigroup Global Operating & Management Committees.

Vaswani also built and ran various country and regional businesses across geographies. He has been president of Pagaya Technologies Ltd, a US-Israeli AI Fintech.

Vaswani also supports various philanthropic organisations, including Pratham, and Lend-A-Hand. He has been on the board of several prestigious institutions, such as the London Stock Exchange Group; the SP Jain Institute of Global Management, UK; Former Trustee, Citizens Advice Bureau; Former Chairman, Retail Committee, British Bankers Association; Former Chairman of the Board, Entercard; Former Board member, Telenor; Former Board Member of VISA Asia Pacific and VISA, UK; Former Director and Member of the Audit and Technology Committee for Barclays Africa Group Ltd and Former Director, UK Finance.