Chanda Kochhar may have to repay Rs 353 crore to ICICI

Chanda Kochhar, former CEO and MD of ICICI Bank, who has been terminated from her service for violating the Bank's code of conduct, might end up paying back Rs 353.16 crore to her former employer, as it has been decided to strip her off all the perks paid between 2009 and 2018.

As per data analysed by DH, Chanda has been paid 9.4 crore stock options over past nine years by the bank. Going by the market closure on Wednesday, these 9.4 crore shares would be worth Rs 343.34 crore. On Wednesday, the Bank's shares closed at Rs 365.25 per scrip on the BSE.

Other than her stock options, Chanda, will also have to pay back Rs 9.8 crore paid to her by the company during the same period in the form of performance bonus.

During the past nine years, when Chanda was heading the Bank, she has taken Rs 29.02 crore home, other than her basic salary. The components in her compensation, other than the salary, included: allowances and perquisites (Rs 14.71 crore), contribution to provident fund (Rs 2.11 crore), contribution to superannuation fund (Rs 97.83 lakh), contribution to gratuity fund (Rs 1.4 crore), along with 9.4 crore shares in the form of stock options.

In a statement, filed by ICICI Bank to the stock markets on Wednesday, the company said that Chanda has been found guilty of misconduct by the panel headed by retired justice B N Srikrishna. As a result, the bank has decided to treat the separation of Chanda as termination of her job and stripped her off all the perks paid to her during the period.

“….schemes and the Code of Conduct, with all attendant consequences (including revocation of all her existing and future entitlements such as any unpaid amounts, unpaid bonuses or increments, unvested and vested & unexercised stock options, and medical benefits), and require the clawback of all bonuses paid from April 2009 until March 2018, and to take such further actions as may be warranted in the matter,” the bank said in a statement.

Experts believe that this episode will lead to a string of such roll-backs in Indian corporate history in the coming days. “This claw-back of bonuses is unprecedented. Though this is the first such move by an Indian corporate, this won’t be the last,” Amit Tandon, Founder, and MD of corporate governance firm, Institutional Investor Advisory Services told DH.