ICICI appoints Sandeep Bakhshi as COO

Setting aside rife speculations about the change of leadership, ICICI Bank has appointed Sandeep Bakhshi as Wholetime Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Bank.

Bakhshi will report to Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO of ICICI Bank, who is on leave as a result of an inquiry on loans allocated to Videocon Industries. Bakhshi will be responsible for all the business functions of the bank. In his previously role, Bakhshi was MD & CEO, of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

With this appointment, ICICI Bank's board has given some direction to the market regarding the succession plan at the bank. Also, the board has recommended the appoint of NS Kannan as the MD & CEO of ICICI Prudential.

Meanwhile, the stock of ICICI Bank seems to have factored in this development, at 10:28 hours, ICICI Bank was quoting Rs. 290.30 per share, up by 0.75 per cent on Monday, while the benchmark index BSE Sensex was trading at 35,378.22, down by 170.04 points or 0.48 per cent.