ICICI Bank May Name Sandeep Bakhshi Interim CEO: ET Report
While the discussions are on, the board hasn’t signed off on the decision yet, the Economic Times report said.
ICICI Bank Ltd. is considering naming Sandeep Bakhshi, the chief executive officer of its life insurance unit, as its interim CEO as the lender probes allegations of impropriety against incumbent Chanda Kochhar, the Economic Times reported citing unnamed people.
While the discussions are on, the board hasn’t signed off on the decision to make Bakhshi the interim CEO, the newspaper said quoting one of the persons cited earlier. An announcement could come as early as this week, it said.
BloombergQuint couldn’t independently verify the report. Bakhshi has been the CEO of ICICI Prudential Life since August 2010. Before that, he was the deputy managing director and head of retail at the bank.
This comes as retired Supreme Court Judge BN Srikrishna leads an independent investigation against Kochhar, the bank’s MD and CEO, on a whistleblower’s complaint. Kochhar’s role is under scrutiny regarding soured loans to the Videocon Group, whose founder Venugopal Dhoot had business dealings with her spouse.
Kochhar continues to be on leave, a spokesperson for ICICI Bank said. The Mint newspaper had reported earlier that independent board members asked her to go on leave for the period of the enquiry. Denying this, the bank had said that she is on her planned annual leave.