Yes Bank recasts portfolios, four senior execs to leave

As part of the process, the bank asked four senior officials—Akshay Sapru, head of affluent and private banking; Dhavan Shah, head of SME banking; Sanjiv Roy, head of fee business; and Pankaj Sharma, chief strategy officer—to step down, said the email, as well as the people cited above.

The strategy transformation team under Sharma has been disbanded, and the digital banking team under him will now report to Prashant Kumar, managing director and chief executive officer, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter. The emails conveying the decision were sent only two to three days earlier, the person said.

Also Read: The economics of Poonam Gupta

Kumar sent a mail to all employees on Thursday, informing them of changes at the senior management level.

"Making our branch the fulcrum of growth, the branch will remain the fulcrum of our bank and one of the most effective touch points in reaching our customers to further optimize synergies for accelerating profitable growth and providing our customers seamless experience. The following business functions will integrate with branch banking structure. Private, fee-based business, liability product management, micro-enterprise banking, spectrum banking, inbound call centre," said the mail.

All these functions will now come under Dheeraj Sanghi, the country head of branch banking, affluent and institutional banking.

Shah and Sharma could not be contacted, while Sapru did not respond to calls and Roy did not confirm the development. This story will be updated with responses if and when they respond.

Tighter cost control measures

Changes have also been made to large corporate business, which was earlier managed by two zonal heads and will now converge under a new country head large corporate, said the letter. Commercial banking, which primarily includes SME banking, has also seen changes.

Also Read: QIPs by state-owned banks: A push for compliance but little upside for investors

“As Yes Bank embarks on the next phase of its transformational journey, we remain committed to strengthening our position as a customer-centric Bank. As part of our organisational streamlining process, we are harnessing synergies across all functions to optimise efficiencies and enhance customer experience," said a Yes Bank spokesperson.

"This restructuring is a strategic step to ensure seamless and consistent solutions at every touchpoint, aligning with our core values of agility and innovation. Our focus remains on driving profitable growth while delivering unparalleled service and convenience to our customers," the spokesperson added.

Last year, The Economic Times had reported that the bank had undertaken a massive lay off of at least 500 employees across several verticals ranging from wholesale to retail.

The restructuring, initiated by McKinsey, is part of a cost-cutting exercise to improve the bank's cost to income ratio, according to two of the people cited earlier. The private sector lender's cost to income ratio stood at 71.1% at the end of December 2024.

Also Read: Crisis-hit IndusInd draws top search firms scouting for mandate to find new CEO

Yes Bank's operational expense rose 13.2% year on year to ₹2,657 crore at the end of December 2023. Staff costs rose 10.2% year on year to ₹1,004 crore.

"As guided earlier, with asset mix largely remaining stable between Wholesale and Retail, coupled with our ongoing transformation exercise including right-sizing initiatives and greater leverage of technology, productivity and process improvements, we expect our cost to income ratio to continue to further improve from here on," said Kumar in his third quarter analyst call.