Experts believe it marks some strategic shifts at the $9 billion bank headquartered in Mumbai: the transition from founder-led leadership to a professionally managed institution now looks largely complete.
“Bank CEOs are now being appointed on the basis of business plans rather than loyalties to an organisation,” Abizer Diwanji, Founder of NeoStrat Advisors LLP, a Mumbai-based firm that offers advisory in restructuring, investment banking, dispute resolution & board mentorship.
Focus shifts from governance to growth
The outgoing MD, Ashok Vaswani, showed the bank could operate without its iconic founder, Uday Kotak, at the helm. Saha’s appointment suggests the board now wants a CEO whose core skill is scaling retail banking and driving execution.
| Metric | Kotak Mahindra Bank | Bajaj Finance |
| Topline growth | 18% | 26% |
| Return on equity | 14% | 20% |
| Stock price | 6% | 7% |
Source: ScreenerIndian banks have been stretched thin in recent years by a combination of factors. Credit growth has generally outpaced deposit growth. Customers are moving money into mutual funds, equities, bonds, and other financial products, which has forced banks to raise deposit rates to attract funds, at the expense of profit margins. Luring deposits will still be a new challenge for Saha moving from Bajaj Finance to Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Before joining Kotak, Saha rose to be the MD and CEO of Bajaj Finance and helped build one of India’s most admired lending franchises, known for rapid customer acquisition, cross-selling, analytics-driven lending, deep consumer-finance penetration, high productivity, and execution discipline.
“In banking, the immediate flavour seems to be leveraging technology to do consumer banking, and that’s where to head,” Diwanji added.
| Company | Market capitalisation since March 2023 |
| HDFC Bank | 22.6% |
| ICICI Bank | 55.7% |
| Axis Bank | 50% |
| Kotak Bank | 26.4% |
It’s a sign for peers like HDFC Bank, which is awaiting a leadership change as current CEO Sasidhar Jagdishan’s term ends. “I think somebody who can deal with HDFC Bank’s current business model issue, and we’ve said that many times over, which is basically expanding net interest margin and getting deposits. These are two separate strategies, by the way. I think both need to be pursued,” Diwanji said.In the pursuit of faster growth, Saha will also have to deal with rising interest rates and the regulators’ discomfort with high levels of unsecured lending like credit cards and personal loans.For the full interview, watch the accompanying video
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