''True Legend'': Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma Hails Uday Kotak As ''India's Jamie Dimon''

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder and CEO of Paytm, heaped praises on Uday Kotak, the founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, by drawing a parallel between him and Jamie Dimon, the long-serving CEO of banking giant JP Morgan Chase. In a post on X, he lauded Mr Kotak's contributions to the Indian banking sector, and called him the ''Jamie Dimon of India.''

''I call fondly sir, our Jamie Dimon of India. True legend of Indian Banking,'' he wrote on X in response to a post from Jay Kotak that talks about the history and legacy of Kotak. Notably, Jay Kotak is Uday Kotak's son and the co-head of Kotak 811, Kotak Mahindra Bank's mobile banking app.

See the tweet here:

I call fondly sir, our Jamie Dimon of India. True legend of Indian Banking. https://t.co/Tz2q8BDXpC

— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) December 24, 2023

Many agreed with the comparison and lauded Mr Kotak for his contributions. One user said, ''Kotak's eminence quality banking service network is unfathomable. It takes a generation to build a nation & then help them experience world-quality banking, Uday Kotak with Kotak Mahindra Bank provided that. Perfect.''

Entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala said, ''I would reverse the compliment- and think Jamie and his colleagues would need to call Jamie - the Uday Kotak.''

Mr Kotak's entrepreneurial journey began in 1985 with Kotak Capital Management Finance (KCMF), an investment and financial services company that he converted into a commercial bank in 2003. The new private lender started operations from 30 branches, covering over a dozen cities in India, and eventually rose to be one of India's most-valued lenders.

Today, Kotak group—including the bank and other financial services businesses—has total assets worth over Rs 6.2 lakh crore, advances worth Rs 3.59 lakh crore, 4,417 branches, over 1 lakh employees, and serves over 4 crore customers. The bank is now among India's top four banks in the private sector. 

In September, the veteran banker resigned as CEO and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, four months before his scheduled retirement. Currently, he holds the position of non-executive director on the Mumbai-headquartered Kotak Mahindra Bank's board. Last month, the board of Kotak Mahindra Bank approved the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as a director, managing director, and CEO of the bank for three years with effect from January 1, 2024,

In October, Mr Kotak was ranked by Forbes India as the fifteenth wealthiest person in the country in 2023.