RBI’s Yes Bank rescue plan on, SBI to pick 49%
Bank stock down 55%; Sensex hit Depositors will be protected: FM
At the end of a chaotic day that saw the stock market crash and the government, depositors, mutual funds, payment platforms all wrung their hands in despair and spent tense hours, hope emerged that the crisis triggered by the overnight moratorium on Yes Bank will have a quick resolution, possibly within a month.
A draft scheme placed on Friday by the Reserve Bank of India for the revival of the beleaguered private lender said the State Bank of India (SBI) shall pick up a 49 per cent stake in the reconstituted Yes Bank for about Rs 2,450 crores, and stay invested for at least three years.
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that the 30-day moratorium deadline imposed on Yes Bank Thursday night is an “outer limit”, hinting that the restrictions placed on the bank may be lifted before that. He said the interests of depositors will be “fully protected”.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the deposits and liabilities of all depositors will be honoured and the jobs and salaries of Yes Bank staff will be protected for at least one year.
“We are working to protect the interests of the depositors and also those who invested in Yes Bank. Our immediate priority is to ensure that Yes Bank’s customers are able to withdraw money within the stipulated cap,” Mr Sitharaman said.
She said the government had asked the Reserve Bank to look into what went wrong at Yes Bank and fix individual responsibilities.
The Yes Bank crisis and global sell-off pummelled stocks in Mumbai, as the Sensex shed 894 points after plunging by 1,459 points in intra-day trade and the Nifty crashing below the 11,000-mark.
■ Continued from Page 1 The investors have become poorer by Rs 3.28 lakh crores on Friday. The market capitalisation of the BSElisted companies dropped by Rs 3,28,684.5 crores to Rs 1,44,31,224.41 crores.
The Yes Bank fiasco also hit mutual fund investors in debt and equity hard as the stock fell over 55 per cent. Mutual funds have exposures of Rs 3,345 crores in Yes Bank equity and debt. Nippon India Mutual Fund said it has marked down the value of its investments to zero in bonds issued by Yes Bank.
Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Yes Bank’s rating. “The ratings remain under review, with the direction uncertain,” Moody’s said, downgrading the bank’s longterm foreign currency issuer rating to Caa3 from B2.
Digital payment platforms bore the brunt on the moratorium, as transactions were disrupted, with PhonePe facing “long outage”.