A question of propriety: ICICI Bank's board should resign

The statement issued by the bank was a model of opacity, offering no details on the scope of the enquiry, how it was conducted, who carried it out, and the basis for the conclusion

On current reckoning, the board that manages ICICI Bank has failed in its core fiduciary duties of safeguarding shareholder interests in the country’s largest private bank. Two whistle-blower complaints, two years apart, have raised allegations of conflict of interest involving Chanda Kochhar, chief executive officer (CEO), and loans ICICI Bank extended to prominent corporate groups that had business dealings with her husband at the time. For the first complaint, involving the Videocon group, the board seemed to be in a hurry to pronounce that it was satisfied that Ms Kochhar had not indulged in any impropriety. The statement issued by