Yes Bank to claw back Rs 1.44 cr bonus from ex-MD Rana Kapoor

In a rare move, Yes Bank will claw back Rs 1.44 crore bonus paid to its founder and former chief Rana Kapoor following RBI's directions.

Yes Bank, which is grappling with bad loan issues, has come under the scanner of the Reserve Bank for weak corporate governance.

Kapoor is one of the founders and promoters of Yes Bank, which started operations in 2004. He still owns 4.32 per cent stake in the bank (as of March 2019).

It is to be noted that RBI had denied extension to Kapoor in October last year following regulatory issues. The central bank cited serious lapses in corporate governance and a poor compliance culture at Yes Bank as reasons for denial of extension to Kapoor.

"Further, in accordance with the directions of RBI, the Board of Directors of the Bank had considered and approved clawback of 100 per cent of performance bonus paid to Rana Kapoor for FY 2014-15 and FY 2015-16 net of taxes," Yes Bank said in its annual report released on Thursday.

"The amount of Bonus subjected to clawback was Rs 62,17,823 for FY 2014-15 and Rs 82,45,416 for FY 2015-16. For FY 2016-17 and FY 2017-18, the Bank has not paid any bonus to Rana Kapoor," it said.

Kapoor drew a salary of Rs 6.48 crore for the ten months he served as MD and CEO before his tenure ended in January 2019.

Yes Bank hired Ravneet Singh Gill as Kapoor's successor at an annual package of Rs 6 crore.

Meanwhile, the RBI has appointed former deputy governor R Gandhi as an additional director on the board of the bank.

Many analysts see this as a precautionary move in view of the lender's weak capital position and stress in the balance sheet.

Macquarie Research said even in the past, RBI had appointed additional directors to the boards of banks like Dhanlaxmi Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB).

Both the banks have performed poorly and are in a beleaguered state.

"Many investors are fearing that there could be more skeletons in the closet of Yes Bank, due to which RBI has taken this action. In our view, while there are problems in the bank, and balance sheet looks stressed with the capital position being weak, the move by RBI could be a precautionary move as Yes Bank is much larger than banks like Dhanlaxmi or LVB and any failure here could have serious systemic implications," it said.