Mumbai: The board of private sector lender ICICI Bank Ltd on Wednesday expressed faith in its managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar, and refuted rumours of wrongdoing in granting loans to the Videocon Group.
In a notice to exchanges, the bank said that it has “full faith and confidence” in Kochhar, and added that the internal processes of the bank are robust.
“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 bank said, terming them as “malicious and unfounded”.
The bank also provided details of loan disbursement to the Videocon Group.
According to the filing, ICICI Bank was part of a consortium of 20 lenders that in April 2012 sanctioned loans aggregating Rs40,000 crore to Videocon Group for its debt consolidation as well as its oil and gas capital expenditure programme.
ICICI Bank’s share in the loan facility was approximately Rs3,250 crore, which is less than 10% of the total consortium loan, the lender said. The credit committee of ICICI Bank sanctioned its share of the loan facility under the syndicated arrangement.
This was done after the preparation of information memorandum and the initial due diligence for financing of the programme by the lead bank and sanction of the facility by the lead banker.
ICICI Bank clarified that it was not the lead banker in the consortium.
“This committee was chaired by the chairman of ICICI Bank and it included independent and working directors of the bank. It is important to note that Ms Chanda Kochhar was not the chairperson of this committee. The terms and conditions offered for these loans are similar to those offered by other banks in the consortium, ruling out the possibility of any special benefit to the borrower by ICICI Bank,” it said.
ICICI Bank also clarified that none of the investors of NuPower Renewables is a borrower.
The bank insisted that it has a well-structured and standardized credit approval process, which involves multiple departments conducting processes ranging from loan appraisal to monitoring.
“Given this architecture, no individual employee, whatever may be his or her position, has the ability to influence the credit decision at the bank,” ICICI Bank said.