ICICI director, who quit last week, fined for insider trade

Mumbai: has informed the stock exchanges that independent director Rama Bijapurkar, who said on Friday that she was stepping down due to conflict of interest, had acquired 4,900 equity shares of the bank on January 5, when the trading window for insiders was closed. The bank added that Bijapurkar has been penalised Rs 2 lakh.

In its letter to the exchange with the subject ‘inadvertent trade by designated person’, the bank said that her independent financial adviser purchased 4,900 equity shares of the ICICI Bank in her account without prior intimation to her when the trading window was closed.

“The audit committee of the bank was notified of this incident. Based on Bijapurkar’s submission, it is concluded that this was an inadvertent trade made without any intent to violate the bank’s code prohibiting insider trading or Sebi rules,” the bank said.

Bijapurkar had submitted her resignation on Friday stating that her consulting and teaching role, which involed engagement with other financial institutions, were seen to be in conflict with her directorship.

On Saturday, ICICI Bank also declared its highest every quarterly profit of Rs 6,194 crore — an increase of 25% over the year-ago period.