Kotak Mahindra Bank shares hit a day high of Rs 432.30 on 1 October, up 4%, after the RBI approved Anup Kumar Saha as the next CEO.

The stick got the lift after the bank told exchanges on Thursday morning that the RBI has cleared Saha as its managing director and CEO.

The term runs for three years from 1 January 2027. The RBI sent its approval in a letter dated 30 September.

Saha takes over from Ashok Vaswani, whose term ends on 31 December. One step is left. Shareholders still have to approve the appointment, and the board will now start that process.

Saha is no outsider. He joined the bank in January 2026 and became a whole-time director in March.

Since then he has looked after retail banking, government business, data analytics and marketing.

Before Kotak, he worked at Bajaj Finance from October 2017 to January 2026. He rose to MD and CEO there in April 2025 and resigned in July 2025.

Earlier, he spent 14 years at ICICI Bank, working on credit cards, collections and retail loans.

In all, Saha has more than 32 years of work experience, 25 of them in financial services.

He studied engineering at IIT Kharagpur and did his MBA at IIM Lucknow. Saha said he was ‘delighted to have the opportunity to lead’ the bank.

Chairman C S Rajan said Saha already knows the bank’s businesses well from his current role. For some time now, the transition has been planned.

In June, Vaswani said he would not seek another term, citing personal reasons.

At 9:44 am, Kotak Mahindra Bank shares were trading at Rs 431.55 on the NSE, up by 3.49%. The stock is still down 2.84% this year and sits below its 52-week high of Rs 453.20.

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