YES Bank to open 150 branches in South

Private sector lender YES Bank is planning to open 100-150 branches in the southern region of the country in the next three years to boost its retail base.

Earlier, the bank had announced plans to open 500 more branches by 2015 to take its branch strength to 750.

“As per our vision document, we want to increase our branch strength to 750 from by 2015. Of this, 15-20 per cent of the branches will be opened in south India,” said R Ravichander, group president and head (business development)-south, YES Bank.

The branch expansion would help the bank boost retail asset base by improving the current account, savings account (CASA) deposit, he added.

 

The CASA deposits constitute 10.3 per cent of the bank’s total deposits by the end of March, 2011, which is lower than the industry average.

The private lender, which saw sound growth in most of the parameters in the recent past, is aggressively pushing its branch expansion to improve its retail deposit base.

According to Ravichander, the bank would aim to attain a net interest margin of around 4 per cent by 2015.

“The net interest margin of 4 per cent is pretty much feasible in the context of the overall growth rate of the bank,” he said.

YES Bank had reported a net profit of Rs 203.4 crore for the fourth quarter, a rise of 45 per cent over the net profit of Rs 140 crore in the year-ago period. The growth in earnings was aided by a higher interest income and a stable net interest margin.

The net interest income stood at Rs 348.5 crore, an increase of 42.7 per cent over the year-ago period. The net interest margin in the fourth quarter was 2.8 per cent. The bank’s advances rose to Rs 34,363.6 crore, a 54.8 per cent rise compared to a year ago, while deposits increased 71.4 per cent to Rs 45,938.9 crore.

The share of low-cost current account savings account deposits stood at 10.3 per cent. Gross non-performing asset ratio was 0.23 per cent, while net bad loan ratio for the quarter stood at 0.03 per cent.