With its Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar battling allegations of corporate misconduct and quid pro quo (exchanging favours) in sanctioning of loans, ICICI Bank on Monday evening announced a reshuffle of its top management.
Sandeep Bakhshi, who is the chief of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, has been appointed Wholetime Director and Chief Operating Officer of ICICI Bank.
Kochhar will continue to remain the MD and CEO but has decided to go on leave until the internal enquiry against her is completed, in what the bank described as the “highest levels of governance and corporate standards”.
“Bakhshi will report to Chanda Kochhar, who will continue in her role as MD & CEO of ICICI Bank,” said the bank in a regulatory filing with bourses, adding that during her period of leave, the COO-designate would report to the Board.
The decisions were taken at the end of the day-long meeting of the Board.
Bakhshi had served as Deputy Managing Director of the private sector bank prior to moving to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance in August 2010.
His appointment as COO will be for a period of five years, subject to regulatory approvals. He will take charge in his new role from Tuesday or when regulatory and other approvals are obtained.
Bakhshi will be responsible for handling all businesses and corporate centre functions at ICICI Bank, and all Executive Directors on the Board and the executive management will report to him.
The lender’s board has also recommended the appointment of NS Kannan as MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company. Kannan is currently an Executive Director at ICICI Bank.
The reshuffle comes after the bank named retired Supreme Court judge, Justice BN Srikrishna, as the head of its internal probe into complaints against Kochhar by an anonymous whistleblower.
Though the bank’s board had initially backed the CEO, pressure was mounting on Kochhar to either step down or recuse herself from the daily operations of the lender until the enquiry was completed.
Kochhar, who is presently on her annual leave, has been caught up in allegations of quid pro quo in loans sanctioned by the bank to the Videocon Group and the Essar Group in return for funds given to her husband Deepak Kochhar’s firm, NuPower Renewables.