Yes Bank: A New Chapter

Japanese investor Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which brings permanent capital into Yes Bank, has outlined a range of products and strategies to help the bank take on the might of larger private lenders

- SALIL PANCHAL

The calmness of Yes Bank's managing director and CEO Prashant Kumar is probably what the financial institution has needed most since it's near-death experience in early 2020.

A reconstruction scheme from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), recapitalisation from top banks and a cleanup of bad loans, all helped Yes Bank regain investor confidence and rebuild the trust deficit it was battling.

Now, as some of the existing banks such as State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, and other lenders have partly sold their stakes in Yes Bank to the new investor, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC)—which is now the largest shareholder in Yes Bank with a 24.22 percent stake—a new chapter beckons India's sixth largest bank by asset size.

Rajeev Veeravalli Kannan, managing executive officer, head of India division, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), joined the Yes Bank board, along with colleague Shinichiro Nishino, as non-executive and nonindependent directors in the September-ended quarter. SBI, which still holds a 10.8 percent stake in Yes Bank, will continue to have one representative on its board.

In an exclusive interview with Forbes India, during an India visit in October, Kannan says that after capital infusion from a consortium of local banks, led by SBI, “we knew there was stability and the cleanup has been done in the platform. But importantly, we felt there is a pathway for us to contribute meaningfully for its next phase of growth”.