Board has started succession planning for top position: YES Bank MD

Mumbai: Following the investment by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) in YES Bank last September, the board of domestic bank has begun the process of succession planning for the top position at the bank and is expected to take a decision in the current quarter, managing director and chief executive officer Prashant Kumar said during the bank’s Q3 FY26 earnings call on Saturday.

“There is a process of succession planning which our board does as per process. The process is on,” Kumar said, adding that it was difficult to predict how much time the regulator would take to approve the plan.

In September 2025, SMBC bought 24.2% in Yes Bank in two transactions. On Wednesday the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed SMBC to operate a wholly owned arm in India, four months after the Japanese financial services giant acquired the stake. SMBC currently has operations in India in branch mode from its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

RBI had approved the reappointment of Kumar as head of the bank in October 2025, extending his term by six months to 5 April 2026 as the central bank examined the succession planning at the bank amid the deal with SMBC. At the helm of the bank since March 2020, when YES Bank underwent a reconstruction, Kumar’s previous term began in October 2022 and lasted three years.

Following the entry of the new investors, YES bank is in the process of formulating its five-year strategy, the process for which should be completed by next quarter, Kumar said.

YES Bank Q3 results

On Saturday, YES Bank reported a 55.4% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its standalone net profit to ₹951.62 crore for Q3 FY26. In the same quarter last year, the bank's profit was ₹612.27 crore.

• Operating profit came at ₹1,234 crore, rising 14.3% YoY.
• NII (net interest income) for Q3FY26 was ₹2,466 crore, marking a growth of 10.9% YoY and 7.2% QoQ.
• NIM (net interest margin) improved 20 bps YoY and 10 bps QoQ to 2.6% compared to 2.4% YoY and 2.5% QoQ.
• "NIM for Q3FY26 at 2.6% up 20 bps YoY and up 10 bps QoQ, as reduction in balances of deposits made in lieu of PSL shortfalls and deposit rate cuts/repricing impact, more than offset the asset repricing impact," said the bank.
• The bank's CASA ratio stood at 34% in Q3FY26 compared to 33.1% in Q3FY25 and 33.7% in Q2FY26.
• The gross NPA ratio declined by 10 bps YoY and QoQ to 1.5%, while net NPA ratio dropped by 20 bps YoY and remained flat QoQ at 0.3%.
• YES Bank's advances grew 5.2% YoY and 2.9% QoQ to ₹2,57,451 crore in Q3FY26. Deposits rose 5.5% YoY but declined 1.3% QoQ to ₹2,92,524 crore.

Focus areas

Meanwhile, the bank’s focus is on a structural run down of its legacy rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) portfolio, increasing granularity and profitability of deposits, cost optimisation with productivity enhancement, and improving the overall asset quality.

The bank’s loan growth of 8% on year continued to lag system credit growth, which Kumar attributed to a strategy of targeting profitable loan growth. The bank remains confident of growing the loan book at around 3% sequentially, he said.

“We would be lending somewhere around say 8% YoY growth. If you target only profitable loan growth, then against the industry loan growth of around 12-13%, I think 8% is something where we are happy,” he said.

Here, growth is largely coming from wholesale, especially the commercial banking segment. Within this, demand is higher for working-capital loans, Kumar said, adding that demand for term loans is also strong.