The ICICI Bank board on Friday approved the appointment of Girish Chandra Chaturvedi as non-executive part-time chairman of the bank. The term of the current chairman MK Sharma comes to an end on June 30.
The appointment of Chaturvedi, who has extensive administrative experience, comes at a crucial juncture when the bank is battling one of its worst management crisis with the MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar going on a long leave to allow retired justice B Srikrishna to complete an investigation into whether there was a conflict of interest in loans given by the lender to the Videocon Group.
Earlier this month, after Kochhar announced her decision to go on leave to facilitate a fair probe, the board of the bank appointed Sandeep Bakhshi, the former CEO and MD of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, as a whole-time director and chief operating officer-designate for a period of five years.
Banking sector experts believe Chaturvedi, a seasoned bureaucrat who has been a director at various financial services companies, will help bring an element of stability to the bank and win back investor confidence.
His appointment will be effective from July 1, or whenever the Reserve Bank of India gives its approval.
Chaturvedi is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and has an administrative experience of more than 34 years. He has served as the secretary at the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. He has also served as a additional secretary (financial services). In the banking and financial services sector, he has served as a director at Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Canara Bank, among others.
In a statement to the stock exchanges, ICICI Bank said, “The Board is extremely pleased with this development and believes that Chaturvedi will provide maturity and sagacity to the deliberations of the board. This would also ensure a seamless and smooth transition of leadership at the board and would address stakeholder concerns in this behalf.”
The need for the probe into the loans given to the Videocon Group was felt after complaints that Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar benefited financially, via his company Nupower Renewables, from the business relationship between ICICI Bank and the Videocon Group. Investigative agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been pursuing an enquiry in the matter.
While the board had initially come out in strong support of Chanda Kochhar, it changed its stance because of the ongoing investigations and a notice from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). It was only then that the board, led by Sharma, said there would be an enquiry into the matter. In May, Sebi had sent a notice to Kochhar, seeking her response on the alleged non-compliance with norms in dealings with the Videocon Group and Nupower Renewables.
Before finalising Chaturvedi’s appointment, the board of ICICI Bank is understood to have considered some former finance ministry officials including former revenue secretary Shaktikanta Das, former financial services secretary DK Mittal. Former Sebi chairman CB Bhave was also considered.
