India’s second largest private bank, ICICI has appointed ICICI Prudential Life Insurance CEO Sandeep Bakhshi as whole-time director and chief operating officer (COO).
Meanwhile, Bank’s managing director Chanda Kochhar who is facing conflict-of-interest allegations will remain on leave until a committee investigating allegations of impropriety completes its work.
The ICICI Bank board, in its meeting held on Monday, has appointed Bakshi for a period of five years. In addition, the top-level reshuffle at the bank, executive director N.S Kannan will be replacing Sandeep Bakshi as chief executive of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance company.
The bank has also said that in its official statement that Bakshi will be reporting to Kochhar who will continue her role as MD and CEO of ICICI bank.
It is interesting to see that board’s decision in getting Kochhar to step aside is a reversal of turns, especially after bank, has been backing its CEO from past four months. However, after the second round of charges that came as a whistleblower on May 3, the bank has decided to conduct an independent investigation.
Additionally, SEBI is also investigating on the whether Kochhar and ICICI Bank failed to disclose the adequate insights about Deepak Kochhar’s partnership in a firm, NuPower Renewables when the bank sanctioned loans to companies controlled by Venugopal Dhoot, the owner of Videocon group.
CBI too is studying the proposed nexus between Videocon and Kochhar’s husband.
Meanwhile, ICICI Bank stocks have soared in the share market right after the news of the appointment of Sandeep Bakshi as COO came in. The stock has rallied 3.6 percent on Monday.
Sandeep Bakshi’s appointment marks bank’s second senior-most appointment after Kochhar. He has headed both retail and corporate businesses across the ICICI group. He has also served as MD & CEO of ICICI Lombard General Insurance.