ICICI Bank, which is under the regulatory scanner in the Videocon loan case, has clarified that it has not filed any consent plea with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in the matter. The clarification comes after SEBI officials said earlier in the day that the bank had ‘informally discussed’ to settle the matter with the regulator.
The capital markets regulator had issued a show cause notice to the private sector lender and its chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar in May for alleged dealings between the bank and Videocon Group and certain dealings allegedly between Videocon Group & Nupower, an entity in which Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar, has economic interests.
While the bank has replied to the show cause notice, SEBI officials said the bank was also exploring the consent route wherein a monetary penalty is paid to settle the matter. “Some replies have come, we are examining that.. am not sure about whether they had file consent or not ..I believe the bank has informally discussed the consent (route),” said SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi, while addressing the media post the board meeting. ICICI Bank, however, clarified they have not filed any application for settlement.
“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,” ICICI Bank said in a statement issued to the stock exchanges late on Tuesday.
SEBI whole-time member Ananta Barua had said that while the bank had approached the regulator to settle the matter through the consent route, the application had not been “formally” filed in the specified format.
A senior SEBI official said while the two parties had expressed their intention to settle the matter by paying settlement fees to SEBI, a formal consent application would be filed only after the report of the independent probe by retired Judge B.N. Srikrishna came out.
“The charges pertain to alleged non-disclosure of information regarding conflict of interest on the part of the bank’s CEO while disbursing loans to certain corporates,” added the SEBI official. The capital market watchdog issued the notice for the bank’s alleged non-compliance with certain provisions of Securities Contracts (Regulation) (Procedure for Holding Inquiry and Imposing Penalties by Adjudicating Officer) Rules 2005 and also SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015.
