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ICICI Bank board members are likely to meet this week to decide the future of the bank’s CEO Chanda Kochhar after CBI began inquiry into allegations of corruption and nepotism in loans given to the Videocon Group, with which her husband had a business partnership.
According to a Bloomberg Quint report, the board of India's second largest private bank will decide whether Kochar should be allowed to continue as the company CEO or not. Quoting unnamed sources, the report said that the board is currently divided over the decision. At least some outside directors are opposed to Kochhar continuing in her role," said the report.
The bank, however, rejected news of any schism in the board.
Her current tenure as CEO is set to end on March 31, 2019.
The bank board, consisting of 12 members in total, had earlier called the allegations "malicious and unfounded". In its last filing on March 28, the bank had said: "ICICI Bank Board reviews the Bank's internal processes for credit approval and finds them robust. The Board also expresses and reposes full faith and confidence in its MD & CEO, Ms. Chanda Kochhar."
"Similar rumours had first surfaced in the mid-2016 and had been appropriately responded to", the Bank added.
The statement came after multiple reports had last week alluded to alleged conflict of interest in ICICI Bank's lending to Videocon. Indian Express reported that, in December 2008, Venugopal Dhoot of the Videocon Group set up a company with Deepak Kochhar, husband of ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, and two of her relatives; then gave a Rs 64-crore loan to this company through a fully owned entity before he transferred the latter’s ownership to a trust headed by Deepak Kochhar for just Rs 9 lakh.Explaining its current exposure to the Videocon group, ICICI Bank said it had sanctioned a Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon as part of a consortium of lenders. ICICI Bank said the group of banks was not led by it.
