Yes Bank eyes Rs 1.5 lakh cr balance sheet by 2015

Yes Bank Managing Director & CEO Rana Kapoor says the bank will focus on branch expansion

Private sector lender Yes Bank has set a target of achieving a balance sheet size of Rs 1.5 lakh crore by the turn of 2015.

"The remaining three years will see the bank witnessing accelerated growth with the objectives to achieve a balance sheet size of Rs 1.5 lakh crore, deposit base of Rs 1.25 lakh crore and advances of Rs 1 lakh crore," Yes Bank Managing Director & CEO Rana Kapoor said.

He was addressing the top management, investors and analysts on the completion of two years of its Version 2.0 vision yesterday.

This confidence comes on the back of significant momentum on Casa and retail liabilities front, he said, adding that going forward, the bank will focus on branch expansion.

"We have a target of 900 branches, along with increasing headcount to 12,750 by March 2015," Kapoor said.

The bank has 356 branches across over 200 cities and more than 5,600 employees as of March 2012.

He further said, "the focus for the next phase of growth is primarily to build on the strong underlying foundation created in terms of our expanding Casa deposit base by leveraging on the branches, products and human capital investments and further growing our corporate businesses."

The city-based bank, founded in 2004, has seen a jump in Current Account, Savings Account (CASA) growth after it raised the interest rates on savings bank deposit rates to 7% late last year.

As of Q4 of last fiscal, its CASA ratio grew to 15% of total deposits, up by 4.7% year-on-year. The bank has a CASA target of 30% by 2015. CASA ratio is the ratio of the deposits in the form of Current Account & Savings Account to the total deposits.

For the fourth quarter, the bank reported a 33.6% spike in net profit to Rs 272 on an income of Rs 2,051.4 crore.

Its net interest income improved 28.6% to Rs 448.2 crore as against Rs 348.8 crore in the same quarter a year ago.