Barclays veteran Ashok Vaswani set to head Kotak Mahindra Bank

FORMER Barclays UK CEO Ashok Vaswani is set to take over the reins of India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The Indian banking regulator has cleared his appointment as the next managing director and chief executive of the country's fourth largest bank by market capitalisation.

Vaswani will succeed Uday Kotak who resigned from the role last month citing personal reasons after more than two decades of his association with the private sector leader.

Vaswani, who is expected to assume office by January 1 next year, is appointed for a period of three years, subject to the bank’s shareholder approval.

Kotak described Vaswani as “a world class leader and banker with digital and customer focus,” and said his appointment would bring a “global Indian home” to build the bank and the country for the future.

The India-born international banker, who joined Barclays in 2010 and built its global businesses, brings with him executional experience across corporate and consumer businesses.

He became the UK lender’s chief executive in 2016 and then led its global consumer and payments business. The non-executive director of the London Stock Exchange Group previously worked at Citigroup as its CEO for Asia Pacific and as a member of its global operating and management committees.

The current president of the US-Israeli AI fintech firm Pagaya Technologies is also on the board of the SP Jain Institute of Global Management, UK and supports philanthropic organisations, including Pratham and Lend-A-Hand.

The chartered accountant, who attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business, is also a former chairman of the retail committee of the British Bankers Association.