Say Yes To Growth
Building one vertical at a time, in little less than 14 years, Yes Bank which began life in 2004 has established itself as the fourth largest full-fledged private bank in the country.
It’s total assets grew 30 per cent last year to Rs 2.15 lakh crore; and in the past four years, registered a 21.4 per cent compounded annual growth rate. In fiscal ’17, deposits rose 27 per cent to Rs 1.42 lakh crore.
This has helped its net profit for fiscal ’16-17 increase 31 per cent to Rs 3,330 crore.
The bank has taken a variegated approach to lending, focusing on knowledge banking — the cornerstone of its astounding growth rates. In fiscal ’16-17, when credit offtake was in low single digits, its advances increased 34 per cent to Rs 1.32 lakh crore. This fast-paced performance won it accolades as the runner-up in the ‘Fastest-Growing Mid-sized Bank’ category in the 10th BW Businessworld’s Best Bank Survey 2016-17.
The bank has blossomed into a full-service commercial one, having built up its corporate-banking, financial-markets, investment-banking, corporate-finance, business- and transaction-banking and wealth-management business lines over the years. In recent years, it has added retail credit lines to its roster, having launched credit cards and loan portfolios.
Yet, it was not immune to the slowdown in the economy last year, which saw stress emerge in its otherwise pristine books. Its gross non-performing assets shot above the 1 per cent-mark for the first time, to 1.56 per cent. In fiscal ’16, gross NPAs were at 0.76 per cent. Its net NPAs came at 0.81 per cent for fiscal ’17 as against 0.29 per cent for FY16.
The bank has developed a knack of picking correctly, the reason why it delivers consistent returns on assets. In the last four years, its return on assets averaged 1.7-1.8 per cent. Also, it has kept a tight leash on costs, its cost-to-income ratio hovering around 41.4 per cent in fiscal ’17 as compared to 40.4 per cent in fiscal ’16.
It has now set its sights on becoming a large bank. “Fiscal ’17 was a significant year in Yes Bank’s lifecycle and we have made substantial progress towards achieving size and scale as a big bank, with a firmly-established digital-banking ethos, and a focus on quality,” says managing director and CEO Rana Kapoor.
Well, of course, it can!
