Madhabi Buch exercised ICICI Bank stock options to get shares worth Rs 10.3 crore after joining SEBI
Global regulatory standards bar officials from having stakes in entities they regulate.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Securities and Exchange Board of India chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch acquired ICICI Bank shares worth Rs 10.3 crore between 2020 and 2022 by exercising employee stock options granted to her by her former employer in 2008, the bank’s regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies show.
Employee stock options, or ESOPs, are equity compensation that companies grant to their employees, allowing them to acquire shares in the company at a later date and below the market price.
Buch was a whole-time director at ICICI Bank in 2008 when she was granted these ESOPs. She left the bank in 2013 and was appointed as a whole-time member of India’s market regulator SEBI in 2017.
Buch exercised the ESOPs three times between 2020 and 2021, while serving as a SEBI member, and once in 2022, after she took over as its chairperson. She paid Rs 2.86 crore to ICICI Bank to exercise 171,875 ESOPs, in return acquiring bank shares worth Rs 10.3 crore.
This, experts say, raises concerns about possible conflicts of interest since as a publicly listed company on Indian stock exchanges, the ICICI Bank is an entity that SEBI is tasked with regulating.
SEBI’s 2008 code on the conflicts of interest does not bar members from holding or acquiring stakes in regulated entities as...
