Private sector bank chiefs take home hefty compensation cheques in FY25

Public sector banks' chiefs trail far behind, with the chairman of SBI, India's largest lender, earning a fraction of what private sector banks' chief executives make

The heads of private sector banks earned hefty compensation in FY25, with HDFC Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer (MD and CEO) Sashidhar Jagdishan and Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MD and CEO Ashok Vaswani emerging as the top earners.

 

In FY25, Jagdishan of HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector lender, earned ₹12.06 crore, up 12 per cent from last financial year. He has also been allotted 212,052 shares in Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) by the bank in FY25, the bank’s annual report for the fiscal year showed. Jagdishan drew a remuneration of ₹10.77 crore in FY24. He was the highest paid banker in FY23 too, with compensation of ₹10.55 crore.

 

Meanwhile, Kotak Mahindra Bank's Vaswani took home compensation of ₹12.95 crore in FY25, according to the bank’s annual report. Additionally, he was granted 18,850 stocks of the bank in ESOPs. 

 

Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO of India’s third-largest private sector lender Axis Bank, received compensation of ₹9.11 crore in FY25, a 5.4 per cent drop from last fiscal. In addition, Chaudhry was granted 2,59,429 stock options by the bank, the bank’s annual report for FY25 showed. Chaudhry drew a remuneration of ₹9.10 crore in FY24, and ₹9.23 crore in FY23.

 

ICICI Bank – India’s second largest private sector bank – has not yet released its annual report for FY25. It's MD and CEO Sandeep Bakshi had drawn a salary of ₹9.96 crore in FY24, and ₹9.57 crore in FY23.

 

Meanwhile, V. Vaidyanathan, MD and CEO at IDFC First Bank, earned ₹5.54 crore in FY25, a 4.5 per cent YoY increase over the last financial year (FY24), the bank’s FY25 annual report showed. Additionally, Vaidyanathan was allotted 2,420,626 in stock options by the bank. 

 

In a stark contrast, the country’s largest lender State Bank of India’s (SBI) Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty took home an annual salary of close to ₹64 lakh in FY25. The previous year's number is not comparable since he was appointed as the chairman only in August 2024.

 

Meanwhile global banks such as JP Morgan and others are way ahead of Indian banks in terms of compensating their chief executives. Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase was paid $39 million in 2024. Meanwhile, Jane Fraser, CEO at CitiGroup, took home $34.5 million, while Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America was paid $35 million in 2024.

 

(Disclosure: Entities controlled by the Kotak family have a significant holding in Business Standard Pvt Ltd)