ICICI CEO backed by its Board

The board of ICICI Bank backed up chief executive Chanda Kochhar, squelching speculation about nepotism and corruption over loans to the Dhoot family-promoted Videocon group of companies. The lender’s stock price has dropped 6% in the past 10 days or so. “The board has full confidence and reposes full faith in the bank’s MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar. On looking at all the above facts, the board has come to the conclusion that there is no question of any quid pro quo/nepotism/conflict of interest as is being alleged in various rumours.” The loans were among those given by a consortium of about 20 lenders, the bank said. ICICI Bank’s share was about 10% and the rest was provided by others under the same terms and conditions.

The bank had a robust credit appraisal system, which ensures that no individual can unilaterally decide on funding a company, the board said.

“There have been some malicious and unfounded rumours in the past few days casting insinuations on ICICI Bank Ltd NSE 1.44 % and its MD & CEO,” it said.