Beena Parmar
Moneycontrol News
The ICICI Bank board on Friday approved the appointment of Girish Chandra Chaturvedi as its non-executive, part-time chairman, effective from July 1, 2018.
"This is to inform you that the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank at its Meeting held today appointed Mr. Girish Chandra Chaturvedi as an Additional (Independent) Director effective July 1, 2018 for a period of 3 years subject to the approval of shareholders," ICICI Bank informed the stock exchanges today.
Chaturvedi's appointment comes as the term of the incumbent chairman MK Sharma ends on June 30. It will be subject to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) approval.
Chaturvedi has served as an IAS officer from the 1977 batch and retired as the country's oil secretary in January 2013.
Chaturvedi has served as Additional Secretary in the Financial Services with the government of India, and held various other senior-level positions in the government.
He has previously been chairman at Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Petronet LNG, and served on the boards of other companies including General Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance Company and United India Insurance.
Among banks, he has served as a director with IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and IDFC Bank.
Chaturvedi holds an MSc in Physics & Social Policy from London School of Economics, UK and also has a doctorate in economic history from the University of Oxford.
"The Board is extremely pleased with this development and believes that Mr. 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 exchange filing said.
It also added, "We affirm that Mr. Girish Chandra Chaturvedi is not debarred from holding the office of Director by virtue of any order of Securities and Exchange Board of India or any other such authority."
The appointment of the new chairman comes at a time when ICICI Bank is battling one of its worst management crises.
On March 28, reports emerged alleging conflict of interest against its CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar. The charges involved connections with loans given by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group and its connections with her husband Deepak Kochhar's firm.
The same day, the bank's board ruled out any wrongdoing on the bank or Kochhar's part stating that it had reviewed the bank’s internal processes for credit approval and found them “robust”.
But the board later confirmed that it had recieved at least three whistleblower complaints received, first being by an activist shareholder in October 2016, and decided to institute an independent enquiry on May 29 to probe Chanda Kochhar.
Two weeks ago, the bank informed exchanges Kochhar will go on leave till the enquiry is completed.
The board also appointed Sandeep Bakhshi to a new position of chief operating officer, created to look after the business and corporate operations of the bank in Kochhar's absence.
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