Yes Bank needs 2 more yrs to stabilize

New Delhi: Crisis-hit YES Bank has shown remarkable progress after its management was taken by the clutch of investors led by State Bank of India (SBI) last year and may take two more years to stabilise, said former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar.

"The situation in which YES Bank was, you have to give three years time at least for it to stabilise... it has shown remarkable progress as the condition was very bad when SBI salvaged it," he told while sharing a sneak peek of his memoir. In his book titled The Custodian of Trust, Kumar said that SBI was reluctant to play the lender of last resort role for the YES Bank but circumstances compelled it to rescue the country's fourth largest private sector lender. "Initially, I believed that after having achieved the mergers of six banks, SBI would be spared the task of saving yet another bank. The last bailout (in 1995) by SBI had been that of Kashi Nath Seth Bank, a family owned bank, operating in a few districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP)," he said.

He mentioned in the book published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI) that there was pressure on him to find the other investors by March 13, 2020, by the RBI to avoid any cascading impact of the country's fourth largest private sector on the financial system. The Reserve Bank India on March 5, 2020, imposed a moratorium on troubled lender YES Bank and capped withdrawals at Rs 50,000. Subsequently restructuring plan notified by the government on March 13 leading to lifting of moratorium on March 18, 2020.