On Thursday, 1st October 2026, amid crashing of Nifty and Sensex, and bloodbath in Indian stocks markets, two of the biggest Indian banks announced names for the top job – Kumar Saha appointed Managing Director & CEO of in the morning, and in the evening Anup Bagchi named Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of . Both Anup Kumar Saha and Anup Bagchi have served ICICI in the past, and are graduates of IIT and IIM.
Meet Anup Kumar Saha – RBI approves his appointment as Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MD-CEO
Anup Kumar Saha, currently Whole-time Director (Executive Director) of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has over 32 years of professional experience, of which, 25 years has been in financial services across banking and non–banking financial institutions.
Saha joined the Bank in January 2026. In his role as Whole-time Director (Executive Director) of the Bank since March 2026, he oversees the entire Retail Bank, Government Business, Data Analytics and Marketing function.
Prior to joining the Bank, Saha was associated with Bajaj Finance Limited (where he progressively held senior roles, starting as President–Consumer Finance , then as Deputy CEO–Consumer, MSME, Marketing, Operations & Service and Digital platform, as Executive Director (April 2023–March 2024), Deputy Managing Director (April 2024–March 2025) and finally, as the Managing Director & CEO (from April 2025 until his resignation in July 2025).
In his Executive Directorship roles at Bajaj, Saha was responsible for the entire standalone business of BFL.
Ex-ICICI
Prior to BFL, Saha spent 14 years at Limited (ICICI Bank), where he served in senior roles, leading Retail Secured Assets, Business Intelligence, Retail and Rural Collections, Credit Cards and Retail Structured Finance.
He also served as a Nominee Director of ICICI Bank on the boards of TransUnion CIBIL Limited and ICICI Home Finance Limited.
Earlier in his career, Saha worked with GE Capital (1999–2003) looking after credit cards, sales and analytics and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (1991–1995) in production engineering, following a brief stint in consumer durable sales.
IIM-Lucknow and IIT Kharagpur
Saha has a B. Tech degree in Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and has also completed his MBA from IIM Lucknow.
Meet Anup Bagchi – Appointed MD-CEO of HDFC Bank
Anup Bagchi is a seasoned financial services leader with over three decades of experience across banking, capital markets, wealth management and insurance. A member of the ICICI Group since 1992,he has built a diverse career spanning treasury, retail banking, wholesale banking, investment banking, and digital financial services.
ICICI veteran
Over the course of his career, he has held several pivotal leadership positions, including CEO & MD of ICICI Securities, Executive Director of ICICI Bank, and currently MD & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
His career reflects a strong track record of business building, strategic leadership, and navigating the evolving financial services landscape.
Bagchi served as Executive Director of ICICI Bank from 2017 to 2023, overseeing Retail, Business and Rural Banking, and subsequently Wholesale Banking. During his tenure, he played a key role in strengthening the bank’s retail franchise, driving profitable growth while maintaining credit and cost discipline.
Under his leadership, ICICI Bank became the first private-sector bank in India to surpass a retail mortgage portfolio of Rs. 2 trillion and successfully navigated the demonetisation period with limited business disruption.
Alongside his executive responsibilities, he served as the Chairman of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company until May 2023 and was a Director of ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Company and ICICI Home Finance.
Since June 2023, Bagchi has been serving as MD & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, leading one of India’s largest private life insurers, which is publicly listed. Under his leadership, the company crossed Rs. 10,000 crore in Annualised Premium Equivalent (APE) for the first time in FY2025, with APE growing 15% year-on-year to Rs. 10,407 crore and profit after tax increasing nearly 40% to Rs. 1,189 crore.
IIM-Bangalore and IIT-Kanpur
Anup Bagchi holds Management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and an Engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.