Yes Bank’s rescue act in early March 2020 happened in the nick of time ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, and even a 15-day delay in it would have meant great difficulty for a lender about to close down, its new managing director and chief executive Prashant Kumar said.
Speaking for the first time about the journey since the RBI and the government moved in to bailout the lender seeing an exodus of deposits with a Rs 10,000-crore rescue act led by SBI, Kumar acknowledged that the thread was very slender and the timing was very apt.
“… if this decision had been delayed by even 15 days, I don’t know whether we would be able to see … whether we would be able to speak today,” Kumar told PTI, expressing satisfaction at the way the reconstruction has panned out.
Within six days of the move to supersede the board and freeze deposit withdrawals, the WHO announced COVID-19 as a pandemic. Infections kept on increasing across India and within 20 days, the entire country was in a national lockdown. SBI took the lead in the rescue and was supported by all the lenders in the system, who have become stakeholders in the bank by infusing capital.
“We are at least very happy in terms of what we have achieved,” Kumar said, listing out the 55 per cent growth in deposits, a 42 per cent jump in operating profit during pandemic-marred FY21 and a Rs 5,000 crore cash recovery as key wins.
However, the timelines of the recovery got stretched because of COVID and what should have been achieved in FY21 got deferred to the next fiscal, he said, acknowledging that the second wave is upon us now.
“I think COVID is creating more issues for us. There are no regrets, but the timelines have a little elongated,” he said.
He says the overall quantum of stressed assets from the legacy book has now come down to Rs 45,000 crore from the Rs 50,000 crore at the time of the bailout and includes over Rs 28,000 crore in non-performingassets and written-off loans.
