« It’s never a good time to call it a day… »: Kotak Bank CEO Ashok Vaswani on his decision to leave

On 27 June 2026, Kotak Mahindra Bank informed the stock exchanges that its Managing Director and CEO Ashok Vaswani had informed the board that for personal reasons he did not wish to seek re-appointment after the end of his current tenure on 31 December. The news came as a surprise considering that Vaswani had only taken the top job at the private sector2 lender024 in January.

« There is never a good time to call it a day… » Vaswani said while interacting with reporters after the bank’s Q1 results. He announced that he had just become a grandfather and his daughter, who was in San Francisco, called him, which made it convincing.

Over the past few years, the bank has faced headwinds, such as the embargo imposed by the Reserve Bank of India on issuing new credit cards or acquiring new card customers through online and mobile banking channels. This restriction was removed in 2025.

Vaswani noted that the bank had done a lot of « heavy lifting » to address various challenges and was now ready to step up the accelerator, so it might not be a bad time to walk away.

« You’re aware of the technology ban, you’re well aware of the rebuilding of the entire management team, you’re well aware of how we’ve cleaned up the personal loan book, how we’ve cleaned up the credit card book, the microfinance book, how we’ve started our responsibility engine. So, the bank and the group, we have a good unified strategy, and you know well that now is not a good time to take a step forward, » he pointed out.

Vaswani has said that the bank will submit the names of his successors to the Reserve Bank within the stipulated time.

Kotak Mahindra Bank on Saturday reported a 26% rise in net profit for the April-June quarter to ₹ 4,123,000 crore. Its EBIT rose 9% year-on-year to ₹7,928 crore.