Kotak Banks’ Joint MD KVS Manian Resigns To Pursue Other Opportunities

The Board of Directors of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited has informed the stock exchange that Krishnan Venkat Subramanian (KVS Manian) ceases to be the Whole-time Director designated Joint Managing Director, with immediate effect on account of his resignation. Consequently, he ceases to be the Director and a Key Managerial Personnel of the bank.

In his resignation letter, Manian said that he wants to pursue other opportunities in the financial services sector. Manian spent 29 years at Kotak and was seen as a likely successor to the bank’s promoter CEO, Uday Kotak; however, the RBI pushed for an outside candidate to hold the top job at the bank. Following the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as MD and CEO on March 1, Manian was redesignated as the Joint Managing Director.

The bank announced that Shanti Ekambaram, its Deputy Managing Director, will now supervise the investment banking, institutional equities, and asset reconstruction sectors previously managed by Manian. Meanwhile, Ashok Vaswani, the newly appointed MD and CEO, will directly oversee the wholesale, commercial, and private banking divisions.

KVS Manian is a Cost and Works Accountant and holds a postgraduate degree in financial management from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. He graduated from the Indian Institutes of Technology (BHU) in Varanasi with a degree in electrical engineering.

The senior executive’s departure coincides with a crisis in Kotak Mahindra Bank’s digital business expansion, following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) prohibition on the bank’s ability to onboard new clients and issue new credit cards through digital channels on April 24.