Meet Sandeep Bakhshi, the new top boss at ICICI Bank

The ICICI board on Thursday appointed Sandeep Bakhshi as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank after it accepted Chanda Kochhar's request to seek early retirement. Three months ago, Bakhshi was named the Wholetime Director and Chief Operating Officer designate of the private lender. Though Bakshi will take control of the reins of the second-largest private bank, he will not get any additional remuneration for his new role as the CEO, the company said in its regulatory filing. He was also the senior-most official at ICICI after Chanda Kochhar.

"The board decided to appoint Mr Sandeep Bakhshi as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. His appointment will be for a period of five years until October 3, 2023, subject to regulatory and other approvals. The other terms and conditions of this appointment, such as remuneration, would remain unchanged," the bank said.

The ICICI Bank has been under a lot of duress of late, with its CEO Chanda Kochhar facing allegations of 'quid pro quo' in loans worth Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon Group. Multiple agencies, including CBI and markets regulator Sebi, are already probing the case.

Assuming office in turbulent times, Bakhshi has the task cut out for him. For starters, he will have to make investors, shareholders and regulators believe in the corporate governance standards, which are being questioned after the Videocon loan scam came to light. Bakhshi will also have to promptly deal with the bank's stressed assets.

Bakhshi did mechanical engineering from Chandigarh's Punjab Engineering College and pursued a masters degree in management from Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur. Bakhshi started his professional career at a computer marketing company ORG Systems in 1983. He came to ICICI Ltd in 1986 and handled the corporate clients of the company for the northern and the eastern regions. He later moved on to ICICI Lombard in 2002 where he was responsible for business development, project appraisals, project monitoring and business re-structuring.

He was appointed as MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company in August 1, 2010, a position he held till his latest appointment. During his tenure, the company launched its initial public offering (IPO) worth Rs 60-lakh crore, which was the first such offering by any insurance company in India.