Former Bank of Baroda Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya is being seen as the top contender for the role of Non Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank.
An experienced public sector banker, Mallya is perceived as being “more proactive” and could succeed current ICICI Bank Chairman MK Sharma when his term expires at the end of the month.
Both the government as well as state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, which are shareholders in the lender, are also understood to be in favour of Mallya.
LIC Chairman VK Sharma is an independent director on the Bank’s Board along with Lok Ranjan, who is the Government Nominee Director on the board.
Until now, the Finance Ministry has tried to keep away from the controversy surrounding ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar. Ranjan has not attended Board meetings while Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had said the charges are being investigated by the bank’s internal and external committees.
“It is felt that the Board could have handled the allegations in a better way from the start and prevented some of the tumult. Mallya has a proven track record and vast experience in banking and could be a good choice,” said a source.
Mallya had been appointed to the Board of ICICI Bank as an independent director on May 29. Before joining Bank of Baroda, he had also served as the CMD of Bank of Maharashtra.
ICICI Bank is expected to hold its next Board meeting on June 27.
Other independent directors on the Bank’s Board include Uday Chitale, Dileep Choksi, Neelam Dhawan and Radhakrishnan Nair.
“Discussions have already started informally. The other option would be to bring someone from the outside but with the current reshuffle in the top management, it may not be desirable,” noted the source.
With Kochhar facing allegations of corporate misconduct in loans sanctioned to the Videocon Group and the Essar Group, the Bank’s Board has initiated an internal inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna.
On Monday, the Bank’s Board announced that Sandeep Bakhshi, who was till now the chief of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, has been appointed as Wholetime Director & Chief Operating Officer designate, ICICI Bank.
Kochhar will continue to remain the MD and CEO but has decided to go on leave until the the internal enquiry is completed.
On Tuesday, the Bank also informed the bourses that NS Kannan ceases to be Executive Director, ICICI Bank following his appointment as the MD & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
However, despite the change at the lender’s top management, its scripThe ICICI Bank scrip fell by 0.5 per cent to end the day at ₹292 apiece on the BSE.