Brands
Kotak Mahindra Bank CTO Bhavnish Lathia exits within a year of taking charge
Tech chief steps down for personal reasons as lender reshuffles digital leadership
MUMBAI: Kotak Mahindra Bank’s chief technology officer Bhavnish Lathia has stepped down less than a year after taking the role, marking yet another leadership churn in the private lender’s technology ranks as banks double down on digital muscle.
In a regulatory filing, the bank said Lathia resigned for personal reasons, with the board accepting his exit on 9 February 2026—his last working day. Lathia is relocating to the US, according to the disclosure.
Lathia, part of the bank’s senior management, had assumed the CTO role in March 2025. His departure follows that of predecessor Milind Nagnur, a Silicon Valley veteran who quit in January 2025 after a little over two years in the job.
Kotak has named Nilesh Chaudhari as the new chief technology officer, the same filing showed.
A customer-experience technologist
Lathia joined Kotak in 2022 as chief of customer experience and head of technology for the consumer bank, overseeing service quality and customer experience across channels. After nearly three years in that role, he was elevated to CTO.
Known as Nish among colleagues, he brings over 25 years of global experience spanning technology, product and customer-focused roles. He is a former Amazon executive, having spent nearly 18 years there across product management, ecommerce, marketing, engineering and analytics, largely focused on sharpening customer experience.
After Amazon, he moved to Valo Health as chief product officer, leading engineering, machine learning and product management.
Days before his resignation, Bloomberg reported Kotak was planning to hire around 500 engineers from large technology firms, with Lathia playing a key role in that talent push.
Market reaction
Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank traded higher after the disclosure. The stock was at Rs 432.10, up Rs 3.35 or 0.78 per cent. It opened at Rs 432, touched a high of Rs 432.10 and a low of Rs 428.80, against a previous close of Rs 428.75. The 52-week high stands at Rs 460.31 and the low at Rs 378.98. The volume-weighted average price was Rs 430.23.
Lathia’s exit comes at a time when banks are racing to upgrade technology stacks, strengthen digital services and woo customers through slicker platforms. In that contest, stability at the top matters.
At Kotak, the message is becoming familiar: in the digital banking race, the code must keep running—even when the coders change.
