Sebi finds ICICI bank outreach to I-sec shareholders inappropriate

livemint.com:

Mint had reported on 7 May that Sebi was looking into the allegations that the bank's employees had reached out to shareholders of I-Sec to try and influence them ahead of a crucial shareholder vote.An email sent late evening on Thursday to ICICI bank spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.In the letter, the markets regulator wrote, “...based on the examination of the investor complaints, it was observed that some of the officials of your Bank have gone beyond the outreach programme by making repeated calls, asking for screenshots of voting, etc. Further, from one of the call recordings shared, it was observed that the shareholder of I-Sec was informed by your Bank officials that opting for the scheme would be beneficial, which was clearly beyond an outreach programme.

As such it appears from the complaints that your Bank officials went beyond the remit of the outreach programme," said Sebi in its letter.These observations were made by Sebi on the bank's reply given to a set of queries sent by the markets regulator.In its reply, ICICI Bank concurred that I-Sec had shared the data of its shareholders at the bank's request, and that it had reached out to those shareholders of the company, who were either shareholders or customers of the bank.“Sharing the personal information of shareholders with the parent company or any other group entity is not a healthy practice. There are significant data privacy violations here.