Kotak Mahindra Bank falls nearly 4% as joint MD KVS Manian resigns

Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank opened 2% lower on Wednesday as the bank announced on April 30, that its joint managing director K V S Manian, a veteran at the private sector lender, has stepped down with immediate effect.

Manian, who had been with the lender for nearly three decades, was elevated in a management rejig in January.

The surprising news of the departure comes days after the RBI put severe business restrictions on the lender, including stopping it from selling new credit cards for shortcomings in its tech architecture.

A statement from the bank said Manian, who has led various businesses including consumer, commercial, wholesale and private banking, has stepped down from his position with immediate effect.

The bank statement did not mention anything about Manian's future plans or the reasons for the immediate departure.

Days ahead of his elevation, some media reports had suggested that Manian, who was earlier speculated to replace Uday Kotak as the CEO and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, would be leaving to head a smaller rival bank.

On Tuesday, Kotak Mahindra Bank said its deputy managing director Shanti Ekambaram will oversee the investment banking and institutional equities, and, asset reconstruction businesses which Manian used to oversee, while the bank's newly appointed MD and CEO Ashok Vaswani will have the wholesale, commercial and private bank report directly to him.

"Manian has spent over 29 years at Kotak and we are thankful to him for his association and we wish him well in his future endeavours," Vaswani said.

Vaswani added that he is confident of the strong leadership talent at the bank and its ability to scale businesses to the next level in times to come.

The Kotak Mahindra Bank is trading 3.6% lower ₹1,564 apiece on the NSE at 11:21 am on Thursday.

(With inputs from PTI)