Sources said that the appointement was a stop-gap arrangement and the process of finding a replacement for Chauker is on. "Most probably the new incumbent will be an outsider," a source said. Sources said that the acting managing director will be spending about an hour or two at the investment bank. "She has been going to I-Sec in the past two days to take stock of the situation," a source said.

Chauker spent his last day at I-Sec on Wednesday after spending 14 years at ICICI. He joined ICICI as an officer in 1984 and rose to become executive director of the term-lending institution in 1998. He took over as the managing director of I-Sec after NJ Jhaveri retired from the investment bank. Under Chauker's tenure, the joint venture with JP Morgan was terminated.

Chauker was able to turn around theinvestment bank after posting the ever loss and make it a name to reckon with in the investment banking circle after it received permision to become a primary dealer in government securities.