Yes Bank moratorium lifted, full banking services resume
Yes Bank resumed full banking services from 6 pm Wednesday, with the Reserve Bank of India imposed moratorium being lifted.
"Our banking services are now operational. You can now experience the full suite of our services. Thank you for your patience and co-operation," the bank wrote on Twitter tagging the RBI and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's handles.
The RBI had put the struggling private sector lender under moratorium on March 5 and had capped withdrawals at Rs 50,000 for all accounts, citing the "financial position" of the bank "which has undergone a steady decline".
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has announced this on Monday saying there is a robust revival plan for the lender.
Earlier, on Monday, the bank had tweeted regarding the resumption of services and announced that all digital services and platforms would be accessible. "We will resume full banking services from Wednesday, Mar 18, 2020, 18:00 hrs. Visit any of our 1,132 branches from Mar 19, 2020, post commencement of banking hrs to experience our suite of services. You will also be able to access all our digital services and platforms," the bank wrote in the tweet.
Asserting that there was no reason for worry, Das had said that swift action has been taken by the government and central bank to resolve the Yes Bank crisis and said that depositors' funds in the bank are fully safe and secured. A new board will assume its position at Yes Bank and the office of the administrator will cease to exist on March 26, he said.
"The depositors money is absolutely safe… and there is no reason for any undue worry or there is no need for rushing into withdrawing their deposits. In India, never in the history of banking, depositors have lost money. Their interests have always been protected," Das said at a media conference here.
"The moratorium will be lifted at 6 pm on March 18. As you can see, this has been a very swift and fast action, perhaps a record of sort. With regard to the restructuring scheme which has been notified by the government, I would like to say that it is a very credible and sustainable restructuring plan. We do believe it is credible and it will sustain in the years to come," Das said.
On Tuesday, Yes Bank CEO-designate Prashant Kumar also said that complete operational normalcy will be restored from 6 pm on Wednesday. In past three days, more money came to Yes Bank compared to withdrawals as only one-third of customers withdrew Rs 50,000 from their accounts.
SBI and few other private banks have invested in Yes Bank under a revival plan. SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said not even a single Yes Bank share it holds will be sold before three-year lock-in period.
As of December 2019, the bank incurred a quarterly loss of Rs 18,564.25 crore and a period to date loss of Rs 19,097.78 crore. Subsequent to this period, the private bank's deposit base has seen a further reduction to Rs 137,506 crore.
Meanwhile, close to Rs 1,000 crore of retail investors' money has evaporated after the Yes Bank management decided to write-down Additional Tier 1 bonds (AT1) worth Rs 8,415 crore. While mutual funds, insurance firms, pension funds and provident funds had invested over Rs 6,300 crore in the bank's bonds, retail investors (including non-resident Indians and others) had an exposure of Rs 996 crore and other institutional investors accounted for the balance.
(Inputs and image from indiaexpress.com)
