Speaking to CNBC-TV18’s Ritu Singh, Vaswani said, “At a personal level, Ritu, there’s never a good time to call it a day, but the last three and a half years have been spent doing a lot of hard, heavy lifting.”
He pointed to the technology embargo the bank had to work through, the rebuilding of its entire management team, and the clean-up of its personal loan, credit card and microfinance books as some of the heavy lifting he referred to.
Vaswani added that with the bank’s liability engines “all cracking” and a unified strategy now in place across the group, this felt like the right moment to step back, since the bank is “very well set now to accelerate” its journey.
On the personal front, Vaswani said, “I became a grandfather. My daughter’s in San Francisco, so San Francisco calling, daughter calling, made it all the more compelling.” He said the decision to step away was for personal reasons, and confirmed the bank will submit names for his successor to the RBI within regulatory guidelines.
Alongside the announcement, Vaswani also touched on the bank’s business performance. On the international front, he said the bank will do FCNRB business out of GIFT City, though he noted it is still early days. He said Kotak Bank’s deposit book is relatively short-tenor at present, and foreign deposits will help the bank elongate its deposit book and create more stability.
On financials, Vaswani said margins have remained flat for three consecutive quarters. He said credit costs are significantly down year-on-year for the bank, though they are up sequentially, and attributed the rise in slippages during the quarter to seasonal factors in the tractor business.
Also read: Kotak Mahindra Bank Q1 Results: Slippages see minor increase, Margin compression in-line
(Edited by : Srabastee Biswas)
