DELHI (Reuters) -India’s ICICI Bank said on Monday it did not pay any salary or grant employee stock options to the current markets regulator chief Madhabi Puri Buch after she left the bank other than the retirement benefits that were owed to her.
The main opposition Congress party alleged that the regulator head had a conflict of interest in dealings with ICICI, one of the country’s largest private lenders, after receiving large sums from it.
ICICI Bank responded via a notice to the stock exchange.
An email query sent to Buch, spokespersons for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the finance ministry were not answered.
Buch has been at the centre of a storm following accusations by Hindenburg Research that she and her husband previously held investments in offshore funds also used by the Adani Group, which is being investigated by the regulator. She has denied the accusations.
On Monday, Congress alleged Buch had earned 168 million Indian rupees ($2 million) from 2017 to 2024 in salary and through stock options from the bank. It did not provide any evidence to back its claims.
SEBI’s senior officials are not allowed to receive a salary from other professional activities, while share investments are allowed only if they are disclosed correctly, according to the regulator’s own policy.
Buch joined SEBI in 2017 as a whole-time member, taking the second-highest post in the organisation. She was appointed to the top position in March 2022.
Prior to that, she worked in the private sector, including ICICI Bank and its subsidiary ICICI Securities, from 1997 to 2011. ICICI Bank is regulated by SEBI.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in Delhi, Jayshree P Upadhyay in Mumbai and Nishit Navin in Bengaluru; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Hugh Lawson)
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