MUMBAI: ICICI Bank was caught in a crossfire. On Tuesday evening, markets regulator Sebi said the lender and its MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar replied to its show-cause notice on alleged regulatory lapses.
They added ICICI sought consent mechanism, which allows wrongdoers to settle pending matters without accepting or denying guilt.
But within an hour, ICICI tried to wing it, denying having made any such offer.
According to Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi, ICICI replied to its show-cause notice with respect to allegations of ‘conflict of interest’ and failing to make necessary disclosures.
“On the ICICI (issue), to my information some reply has come from the bank and the earlier CEO (Kochhar), so, we will examine that,” Tyagi said.
When pressed if ICICI sought a consent plea, he said nothing was ‘formally communicated by the bank.’ But another Sebi official at the media conference confirmed the bank’s request.
ICICI in a statement said, “We have submitted our response to the show-cause notice issued by Sebi. We would like to clarify that we have not filed any application for settlement.”
Why Sebi issued show cause notice to ICICI
Sebi issued show-cause notice following preliminary investigations, leading to adjudication proceedings for alleged violation of listing disclosure norms regarding ‘conflict of interest’ in business dealings of Kochhar’s husband with Videocon Group. Both ICICI Bank and Kochhar maintain there was no regulatory violation