Mumbai: The Managing Director and CEO of the ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar had put forth her request for an early retirement. As an immediate response, the board of directors accepted the request by Kochhar on Thursday, October 4.
Sandeep Bakhshi, is appointed as the MD, CEO of ICICI Bank, for five years, as decided by the board of directors.
Bakhshi will serve until October 3, 2023, with subject to regulations and other approvals. The terms and conditions of the appointment, like the remuneration, is said to remain the same as earlier.
Speaking to a national economic news channel, MD, InGovern, Shriram Subramanian said, “It has come as a surprise. As the panel headed by the Retd. Justice of the Supreme Court Srikrishna is still probing the Videocon loan scam, Kochhar has taken this decision. Until the inquiry is completed, no changes can be made, due to which the decisions of the board of directors will now be a subject of serious scrutiny.
The bank made it clear that the probe on the case will not be affected by the decision of the board of directors.
Chanda Kochhar is said to also resign from the board of directors of bank subsidiaries.
The bank had recently informed regarding the the show cause notices issued against Kochhar, her husband, and his business associates.
It is also known that the independent Director, M D Mallya, has resigned from his post on health conditions. The board has accepted the same.
Political Analyst, M R Venkatesh said, “She should have resigned much earlier. This case will be probed by the Enforcement Directorate, so as to verify whether or not any money laundering has happened in the scam that she is accused of. It is an ‘Acid’ test for all of us, especially for those in the financial circles.”
“The CBI, ED and IT have to put their foot down and are conduct a thorough investigation to expose with facts. We cannot have our financial market like a bank, drifting and being under a cloud”, he added.
PTI reported that the SEBI had already issued a notice to Kochhar, on violation of listing disclosure norms and also regarding the conflicts of interest in the dealings of her husband with the Videocon Group.
