Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank managing director and CEO Ashok Vaswani was India's highest-paid private sector bank executive in fiscal 2026, drawing a total cash remuneration of ₹17.23 crore, a 33% increase from the previous year when he received ₹12.95 crore.When stock options are also factored in, HDFC Bank deputy managing director Kaizad Bharucha's compensation was the highest among bank executives last fiscal year.Vaswani's pay packet was significantly boosted by a ₹6.68 crore stock appreciation rights (SARs) pay-out. SARs, a cash-settled instrument tied to appreciation in Kotak's share price, accounted for nearly 39% of his total compensation.He was also granted 355,500 stock options during the year, more than double the 1,52,750 options he received in FY25. At Kotak's current market price of around ₹384 a share, this year's grant carries a notional value of roughly ₹13.65 crore, pushing his effective total package-cash plus options-to around ₹30.88 crore. Vaswani will exit the bank in December 2026 as he has expressed his unwillingness to take up another term.At HDFC Bank, Bharucha was paid more than his own boss. His total FY26 cash remuneration came in at ₹17.14 crore, just behind Vaswani but ahead of HDFC Bank managing director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan, who earned ₹15.13 crore. Bharucha out-earned Jagdishan on nearly every count, from basic pay and allowances to performance bonus, which at ₹8.57 crore was ₹1.28 crore higher than the CEO's ₹7.29 crore bonus. The gap widens further once stock options are factored in. Bharucha was granted 623,651 shares under the employee stock option programme during the year against 428,405 to Jagdishan.At HDFC Bank's current market price of around ₹818 a share, Bharucha's option grant is valued about ₹51.01 crore, compared with about ₹35.04 crore for Jagdishan. This takes Bharucha's effective total package to nearly ₹68.15 crore against Jagdishan's ₹50.17 crore, a gap of over 35%.