YES EXPECTS NPAS TO DECLINE NEXT QUARTER, SAYS CEO KUMAR

MUMBAI: Private sector lender YES Bank, which would have seen its non-performing assets (NPA) ratio touch 20% in the third quarter had it not been for a Supreme Court order, is expecting it to decline from the next quarter, managing director and chief executive officer Prashant Kumar said. Collection efficiency has rebounded to 96% and cheque bounce rate has come down to 9% from 19% during the peak of the pandemic, Kumar said in an interview.

“We need to recognize there is a problem. When the GDP is contracting and we assume that there is nothing wrong, that’s not fair... Whatever is the covid impact, we are making provisions..in our assessment, this is the peak. We expect things to improve only,” Kumar added.

YES Bank reported a gross NPA ratio of 15.36% as on 31 December. But an SC order on classifying loans has masked another ₹8,322 crore NPAS form a mix of retail, corporate and small businesses. Of this, debt recast has been initiated for loans of ₹1,264 crore under RBI’S covid-19 package announced on 6 August.

Kumar added that the lender has initiated debt recast for loans worth ₹8,062 crore as on December 31, but these have not yet been implemented. RBI has given banks three months to implement retail recasts and six months for corporate loans. He added the bank is expecting to recover ₹5,000 crore of bad loans this financial year, of which ₹3,000 crore has been recovered so far.