Yes Bank bets big on retail biz; rejigs mgmt

Eyeing a larger share of the retail market, private sector lender, Yes Bank has chalked out plans to offer a host of retail loan products over the next few months, which could include home, auto and education loans.

To begin with, the lender would offer secured consumer loans and loans to micro, small and medium companies in the next few months and plans to offer home, auto and education loans at a later stage, Yes Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rana Kapoor said.

"So far, we did not enter the retail segment owing to its recent high risk nature. However, with the economy picking up and interest rate scenario conducive for growth, we believe this is the right time to start offering retail products," Kapoor said here in an interview.

Presently, Yes Bank is primarily operating in mid-corporate and large corporate segments and has only a negligible share of retail in its Rs 21,000-crore loanbook. As on date, the total balance sheet size stands at Rs 33,000-crore.

The bank has targeted to take the total advances to Rs 1-lakh crore and deposits to Rs 1,25,000-crore by March, 2015 by focusing more on the mass segment, Kapoor said, adding the bank is also preparing to launch credit cards over the next one year.

It has also ambitious plans to take the share of current, savings account deposits to above 35 per cent over the next few years from 10 per cent at present, he said. The bank, which has entered the second phase of its expansion --Version 2.0, has also restructured its top management team to support its growth expansion plans, he said.

As part of this, the bank has elevated four top officials including Sanjay Agarwal as the President of business banking Rajnish Datta as President of retail banking, Nikhil Sahni as President Branch Banking and Subramanian Ayyar – President, Corporate Development.

"We call this second phase of expansion as 'take off phase'. The bank has has already built a strong base for its future business growth and would like to explore opportunities in the untapped segments now," Kapoor said.

As part of the expansion plans, Yes Bank aims to double its branch strength to 250 by June, 2011 and 750 branches by March, 2015 from around 150 currently, Kapoor said.

Besides, it has also targeted to set up an extensive ATM network - 1200 ATMs by March 2012 and 3000 ATMs by March 2015, he added.