Its end of an era as Buch leaves ICICI

With Buchs departure,a sense of exclusivity that marked the top leadership of Indias second-largest banking group will be practically over. Of the fab six,only Chanda Kochhar will be in harness as the CEO of the bank. Over the past two years,the other five have moved on to top-notch assignments in the financial sector.

The ascendancy of the fab six was one of the several distinctive features that set the top management at ICICI Bank apart from the others in the grey suit dominated world of Indian financial sector. In fact,at one stage,after KV Kamath,who was then the CEO of the bank,the next few positions were all occupied by women.

While Shikha Sharma was not in ICICI Bank,heading ICICI Prudential instead,she was also seen to be part of the same group. Their presence was a resolute demonstration that the invisible glass ceiling of gender bias could be broken in the Indian corporate sector.

The group also broke the petticoat brigade sobriquet used by section of Mumbai financial sector to create one of India’s most diversified financial sector group and pushed its flagship vehicle,ICICI Bank to just behind SBI.

The band started disintegrating in August 2008,when Kalpana Morparia moved out to JPMorgan Chase when the holding company planned by the group had to be sent to cold storage,as RBI disapproved the model. Next year in April,Shikha Sharma took over as CEO of Axis Bank while Renuka Ramnath,who headed the country’s largest private equity firm ICICI Venture,left the group to start her own asset management company. Axis Bank under Sharma has recently acquired Enam Securities. Though Lalita Gupte had retired as joint managing director,earlier in 2006,it was Morparias exit that is seen as the beginning of the change of a pattern in ICICI.

In place of Buch,ICICI Bank has appointed Anup Bagchi as the MD & CEO of ICICI Securities. Bagchi,currently the executive director of the company,will take charge with effect from May 1,2011.