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Informist, Tuesday, Sep 3, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The Congress today refuted ICICI Bank's response that the payment made to Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch was on account of employee stock options and retirement benefits. The Congress alleged that Buch's retirement benefit was more than the salary she received from the bank.

 

Addressing the media, Congress leader Pawan Khera said that Buch's average annual salary from 2007-08 (Apr-Mar) to 2013-14, when she was working with ICICI Bank, was 18 mln rupees per year, but her average annual pension after voluntary retirement was 27 mln rupees. "How can the pension be more than the salary she drew when she was in ICICI? We want SEBI should come out clean and give clarification on our charges. The confidence of investors should not get shaken," Khera said.

 

The Congress alleged that Buch got around 50 mln rupees in 2014-15, which can be believed as a post-retirement settlement. She didn't receive any payment from ICICI Bank in 2015-16. "But in 2016-17, she started getting payment from ICICI again. Why did ICICI resume payment to Buch after a gap of one year," Khera asked, and demanded a response from the SEBI chairperson on the charges.

 

On employee stock options, Khera said that ICICI Bank has not put the ESOP policy on its India website and the policy on its US website says that former employees can exercise their ESOP benefits within three months of voluntary retirement. The bank should tell its ESOP policy for India, Khera said.

 

On Monday, the Congress had alleged that the SEBI chief held office of profit with the ICICI Bank since she took assumed office at the regulator in 2017 and received 168 mln rupees from ICICI Bank and associate companies. It had alleged that Puri was receiving regular income from ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential, and employee stock option plans from 2017-2024, and that she violated Section 54 of the SEBI Act.

 

Later on Monday, ICICI Bank issued a clarification that Buch was not paid any salary after her retirement from the bank. Any payments made to Buch after her retirement from the bank were on account of employee stock options and retirement benefits that had accrued during her service with the group, the bank said.

 

"ICICI Bank or its group companies have not paid any salary or granted ESOPs to Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch after her retirement, other than her retiral benefits," the bank had said in the disclosure. All payments made to Buch post her retirement had accrued to her during her employment phase with the ICICI group and comprised ESOPs and retiral benefits, the bank said. It iterated Buch had opted for superannuation from Oct 31, 2013.

 

The bank also clarified that under then prevailing norms, employees, including retired ones, had a right to exercise ESOPs anytime in 10 years from the date of vesting.

 

Buch has been under fire lately amid several allegations of conflict of interest due to her personal holdings. In an Aug 10 report, US short-seller Hindenburg Research had alleged, among other things, egregious conflict of interest on the part of Buch in her capacity as SEBI chairperson from Mar 2, 2022, and earlier as a whole-time member from Apr 5, 2017, to Oct 4, 2021, with regard to her role in an investigation in the Adani group.

 

At 1520 IST, shares of ICICI Bank traded up 1.5% at 1,248.85 rupees on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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