Yes Bank: The Growth Machine

Having acquired the banking license by RBI in 2004, Yes bank exited FY-17 with over 1000 branches and a balance sheet size of over 2 trillion rupees. Its net worth has gone up over 2650% in past decade from INR 800 crores in 2007 to 22000 crores in FY-17. The bank has created tremendous amount of wealth for its investors since its listing, as the stock has appreciated more than 3500% since its IPO price. Yes Bank issued its maiden shares to public in 2005 at 45 rupees.

So what’s the secret behind such success? Probably, right branding and technology focus has played a key role in the kind of growth the bank has achieved. From the beginning itself, the bank has invested heavily in brand building. In 2013, it signed a 5-year sponsorship deal with IPL and the association seems to have paid off handsomely as it has given significant visibility to the brand and acceptance among Indian people. For IPL 2017, the bank was an associate sponsor. 

The bank is investing heavily in technology backbone and demand of the newer generation customers who prefer net banking over branch banking. Yes bank has specifically focused on making its web and app based customer interfaces simple and powerful. The bank also launched the star banking facility recently where the customer can reach the bank by just dialing **2265 (Star Bank) which is a generic number and very easy to remember. This kind of dialing facility is already popular in western countries and is expected to catch up in India as well. 

Yes bank has increased its focus on retail banking recently and has exited FY 2017 with over 1000 branches & 1785 ATMs and a target to achieve 2500 branches by 2020. With larger footprint the bank is poised to get increasingly higher share of low cost deposits and also diversified credit portfolio of home loans, personal loan, credit cards and other retail credits which are relatively far safer than lumpy corporate loans. Considering the capital position, technology backing and ambitious plans, the bank has significant room to grow further and create wealth for all stakeholders in coming years.