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ICICI Bank under lens in United Sates

Bank has appointed Justice BN Srikrishna, a retired Supreme Court judge, to head an independent enquiry.

Mumbai: Under the scrutiny of multiple agencies for alleged lapses in corporate governance, ICICI Bank has now come under the lens of US market regulator SEC.

The Securities and Exc­hange Commission’s (SEC) queries centre on ICICI’s dealings with certain borrowers under CEO Chanda Kochhar, Bloomberg repo­rted quoting people familiar with the matter.

The report further said SEC has asked whether th­ere had been misrepresentations in the bank’s acco­u­nting. ICICI Bank has Am­erican Depository Receipts (ADRs) traded in the US.

Kochhar, who faces serious charges of quid pro quo in dealings with Videoc­on Group, has gone on leave.

The bank has appointed Justice BN Srikrishna, a retired Supreme Court judge, to head an independent enquiry into allegations raised by a whistleblower against Kochhar.

The private lender had given Rs 3,250 crore loans to Videocon whose ch­a­ir­man Venugopal Dhoot co-founded a separate firm, NuPower Renewables, with Deepak Kocchar, husband of ICICI Bank’s CEO. Th­ere was some possible quid pro quo in the grant of lo­ans, a letter by the whistleblower had alleged. The lo­ans are now non-performing asset on bank’s books.

A whistleblower has tw­ice floated allegations aga­i­nst Kochhar for allegedly be­stowing undue favours on Essar Group’s Ruia br­others for ‘round-tripping’ investments into her husband Deepak’s NuPower Gr­oup. All parties named in the whistleblower’s second letter to the prime minister have denied the allegations as baseless and malicious.

The Securities and Exc­hange Board of India (Sebi) last month had issued a sh­owcause notice to Ko­c­h­h­ar for alleged violation of disclosure requirements un­d­er securities law. Accor­ding to Sebi, Kochhar didn’t adhere to the code of conduct, which required the disclosure of any conflict of intere­st in the case involving Vi­deocon Group and NuPower Renewables.

ICICI Bank had said in 2012 a consortium of over 20 banks and FIs sancti­o­n­ed facilities to the Videocon Group (Videocon Industr­i­es and 12 of its subsid­ia­r­i­es/associates as co-obligo­rs) for a debt consolidation.

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