Yes Bank pauses CEO hunt amid stake sale

The board of Yes Bank Ltd has paused the search for a new chief executive till the banking regulator clears its ongoing stake sale to Japan's SMBC Group, two people aware of the development said.

- Shayan Ghosh & Devina Sengupta

This came after some directors voiced concerns about shortlisting a new CEO at a time of ownership change.

The Japanese lender announced in May that it will acquire a 20% stake in Yes Bank for ₹13,482 crore, in the largest cross-border investment in the Indian banking sector. SMBC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the second largest banking group in Japan with assets of $2 trillion at the end of December.

"The board had started the process and gone quite far with it before the deal, but some members of the board did not concur with it since the new investor would also like to be part of the decision," one of the two people cited above said on the condition of anonymity. The Yes Bank board had begun the hiring process even before the deal with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. was announced in May.