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Informist, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026

 

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--YES Bank: Targetting 1% return on assets for FY27 
--CONTEXT: Comments by YES Bank management at post-earnings press conference 
--YES Bank: Targetting 8% loan growth for FY26 
--YES Bank: See significant improvement in asset quality in unsecured loans 
--YES Bank: NIM will continue to improve in coming quarters 
--YES Bank: Don't see need to raise funds in near future 
--YES Bank: Not pursuing home, car loan segment aggressively 

 

MUMBAI – YES Bank is targeting a return on assets of 1% by the end of 2026-27 (Apr-Mar) and plans to grow its loan book by around 8% in the current financial year, with management remaining focussed on profitable growth, improving margins and strengthening asset quality, the bank's executives said in a post-earnings press conference on Saturday.

 

Speaking after the lender reported its December-quarter results, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Prashant Kumar said the bank's strategy continues to prioritise returns over volume-driven expansion, particularly in a competitive lending environment. "We have been very clear that our strategy is to target a profitable loan growth," Kumar said, adding that certain retail products such as prime home loans and new car loans offer "very thin margins" given the bank's cost of funds. As a result, YES Bank is "not pursuing" these segments aggressively and remains selective in both retail and corporate lending.

 

YES Bank reported a profit after tax of INR 9.52 billion for the quarter ended December, up 55% on year and 45% sequentially. On Friday, shares of the bank had closed over 2% higher at INR 23.46 on the National Stock Exchange.

 

For FY26, the bank is targeting a loan growth of around 8%, lower than the broader system but aligned with its profitability goals. "If you target only profitable loan growth, then against the industry loan growth of say around 12–13%, I think 8% is something where we are happy," Kumar said.

 

Net interest margin is expected to continue improving in the coming quarters, despite recent policy rate cuts. The bank's NIM rose to 2.6% in the December quarter, supported by a favourable funding mix and higher share of CASA deposits. While the recent 25-basis-point repo rate cut will have some near-term impact, Kumar said the bank remains confident about margin resilience.

 

"At this point of time, I would not give any specific guidance, but definitely one part is clear that NIM would continue to improve going forward," he said.

 

Asset quality trends, particularly in the unsecured loan portfolio, have shown a marked improvement, the management said. The bank reported a decline in gross non-performing assets to 1.5% and said slippages in unsecured retail loans and credit cards have eased sharply.

 

"I am very happy to report that both on the unsecured retail asset loans as well as on credit cards, the slippages are coming down and the delinquencies...have started coming down significantly," Kumar said, describing the December quarter as a period of "significant improvement" after stabilisation in earlier quarters.

 

He added that the bank is now comfortable growing its unsecured loan book, with disbursements already up more than 20% compared with previous periods, following tighter underwriting and improved collections. On capital adequacy, YES Bank said it does not see any need to raise funds in the near term. The bank's Basel III capital adequacy ratio stands at 14.5%, which the management said is sufficient to support its growth plans.

 

"With our growth aspirations, we don't see any need for a fundraise in the near future," Kumar said in response to a question on raising capital.

 

The bank also reiterated that its deposit growth will remain aligned with loan expansion, maintaining a credit-deposit ratio of 85-90%. For FY26, deposit growth is expected to broadly match the targeted 8% loan growth, management said.  End

 

Reported by Vaishali Tyagi, Sagar Sen, and Kabir Sharma

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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