After MK Sharma, ICICI Bank May Have Rotating Chairman

This arrangement may continue till the bank finds a full-time chairman.

ICICI Bank headquarters in Mumbai. 

(Photo: Reuters)

ICICI Bank is likely to adopt the rotating chairman model to head its board meetings, till it finds a full-time chairman, according to sources.

With the current chairman MK Sharma slated to retire at the end of this month, the board will nominate an independent director as its chairman for the next meeting.

On 18 June, ICICI’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar went on an indefinite paid leave due to the ongoing probe against her. Kochhar is being investigated for a possible conflict-of-interest issue with respect to the bank’s dealings with Videocon Industries.

Sandeep Bakhshi was appointed as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) after Kochhar was forced to leave the bank.

The board will play a crucial role during her absence, as the day-to-day operations and important decisions regarding the resolution of large non-performing assets (NPAs) under the insolvency process will have to be looked after by the management, with Bakhshi at the helm.

The board constitutes six other independent directors namely, Uday Chitale, Dileep Choksi, Neelam Dhawan, MD Mallya, Radhakrishnan Nair and VK Sharma.

The enquiry into the allegations against Kochhar will be assisted by Luthra & Luthra and Control Risks, led by Justice BN Srikrishna. The allegations regarding the transactions are more than a decade old and hence the final report in the case could take months, reports The Times Of India.

The new management structure had a positive impact on the stocks of the company; the shares rose nearly 2 percent on 20 June.

(With Inputs from The Times Of India.)