HDFC Bank chief Sashidhar Jagdishan is India's best-paid banker of FY25

Mumbai: Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive officer of HDFC Bank, emerged as India's highest-paid banker in the last financial year.

Jagdishan drew a salary of more than ₹12 crore in FY25, a 12% increase from the year before. In addition, he was allotted 212,052 shares in employee stock options (ESOPs). At the current market price of about ₹2,000 per share, these are valued at more than ₹42.4 crore.

Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO of Axis Bank, earned a salary of ₹9.11 crore, a 5.4% decline from the previous year. He was allotted 259,429 stock options, valued at more than ₹30 crore at current market levels.

Ashok Vaswani, MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, took home nearly ₹13 crore in salary along with 18,580 ESOPs, valued at over ₹4 crore.

V Vaidyanathan, MD and CEO of IDFC First Bank, earned ₹5.54 crore in salary for FY25, reflecting a 4.5% rise over the previous year. He was allotted 24,20,626 stock options, valued at nearly ₹18 crore.

Sandeep Bakhshi, MD and CEO, ICICI Bank was paid a salary of ₹9.96 crore in FY24. The remuneration details for FY25 have not yet been disclosed.

Overall, heads of large private sector banks largely saw modest increases in their compensation for FY25, reflecting the Reserve Bank of India's close scrutiny of CEO remuneration. The central bank has mandated prior approval for salary, performance bonuses, and stock option allocations for key managerial personnel at banks.