Videocon loan controversy: ICICI Bank refutes SEBI chief claims that it seeks settlement through consent on Chanda Kochhar issue

Mumbai: Hours after SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi on Tuesday said that the ICICI Bank has replied to its show cause notice with respect to a probe into alleged regulatory lapses involving its CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband and his business dealings and has sought to settle the issues through consent mechanism, the bank denied making any such move. Reacting to the development, an ICICI Bank spokesperson 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.” [caption id=“attachment_4491189” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file photo of Chanda Kochhar, CEO and MD, ICICI Bank. Reuters[/caption] Earlier, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued show cause notices to ICICI Bank, Kochhar and others after its preliminary examination favoured initiating adjudication proceedings against them for alleged violation of listing disclosure norms regarding ‘conflict of interest’ in business dealings of her husband with Videocon Group. The bank and Kochhar have been maintaining there has been no regulatory violation on their part and that she was not aware of specific business dealings of her husband. As per SEBI’s preliminary probe, Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar has had many business dealings with Videocon Group over the last several years. Besides, Deepak Kochhar and Videocon chief Venugopal Dhoot were co-founders and promoters of NuPower, besides other associations. The cases under scanner include the significant loan exposure of the bank to Videocon way back in 2012 and the alleged involvement of Kochhar’s family members in the restructuring of that loan. Kochhar and her family members are facing allegations of quid pro quo and conflict of interest with respect to a loan extended to certain entities.