Athira Sethu
Kochi, 2 October 2026
Two major private sector banks, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have announced the appointment of new CEOs, ending the uncertainty around leadership transition.
These appointments were made after the approvals from the Reserve Bank of India. It is important to note here that both the new CEOs are named Anup and have previously worked in ICICI Bank. Moreover, both of them share similar education backgrounds, as both of them have studied in IITs and IIMs. The appointment comes when both of the present CEOs are ready to leave their posts after completion of their terms.
Anup Bagchi was appointed as the new Managing Director and CEO of HDFC Bank, who will take charge from October 27, 2026 and replace the existing CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan. His term will last till October 26, 2029.
Bagchi has 30+ years of experience in Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets and Treasury. He has had most of his career with the ICICI Group. He served as an Executive Director of ICICI Bank from 2017 to 2023 and handled Retail, Rural, Business and Wholesale banking for ICICI Bank. Later on, he joined ICICI Prudential Life Insurance as MD and CEO.
ICICI Prudential Life witnessed remarkable growth during Bagchi’s tenure at the company. The company registered its premium equivalent annualisation above ₹10,000 crore for the first time in 2024-25. Moreover, its profit after tax grew to ₹1,189 crore, up by nearly 40%.
Bagchi will be the first person who is not from HDFC Bank to be appointed as CEO of the bank ever since it came into existence in 1994. Some of his main duties include improving loan growth, managing deposits and optimising the benefits of HDFC merger.
Anup Kumar Saha has been named as the new CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank for a period of three years starting from January 1, 2027. He will take over as CEO on December 31, 2026, after Ashok Vaswani’s tenure expires.
Saha joined Kotak Mahindra Bank in January 2026 and is presently serving as whole-time director. Prior to joining Kotak, he served as MD and CEO of Bajaj Finance.
Saha has over 32 years of work experience, out of which 25 years are in financial services. Additionally, Saha has served ICICI Bank for 14 years working in sectors such as retail banking, credit cards, rural collections, and finance.
Both the newly appointed CEOs are academically qualified as Bagchi is from IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore, and Saha is from IIT Kharagpur and IIM Lucknow.
These appointments put to rest the uncertainties about the leaders of both these banks and are a new chapter for HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
