Yes Bank aims to grow retail portfolio by 75 pc in two years to Rs 56,000 cr

Focussing aggressively on the retail segment, Yes Bank aims to grow its retail loan book by 75 per cent to around Rs 56,000 crore in the next two years, a top company official said.

"For the last three to four years we have given our complete focus on the retail segment. We see a huge opportunity in retail. Currently our retail asset book size is close to around Rs 32,000 crore. We would be looking to grow it to anything between Rs 55,000-56,000 crore by 2019-20," Rajan Pental, Group President and Group Head- Branch and Retail Banking, Yes Bank, told PTI in an interview.

Prior to turning the focus on the retail segment, Yes Bank built a strong customer franchise and when the equation was right, with a large retail customer base, the bank decided to offer retail services across products, Pental said.

"We entered this segment of business considering the fact that you need to have the entire range of products for all our valued customers," he said.

Asked if the focus on retail base was driven by sluggish credit growth in the corporate loans segment, he said it is a "life-cycle development" for Yes Bank.

"Unlike other banks, it is more like life-cycle development for us. We are completing our customer franchise. In our life-cycle, our objective is to get aggressive on retail. It is not because we thought something else is not doing well so we should get into it," he said.

He said the bank has taken a differentiated approach of segregating branches geography-wise and offering tailor-made products as per the needs of customers.

"We have different products for different markets. On a few products, there will be focus on rural only, like small lending, tractor financing or farmer loans, while the urban and semi-urban markets have the entire range of products. 

"Our footprint of branches is across country and we have now created rural and urban branches segregation," he explained on being asked how it plans to reach a wider base.

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As of end-June 2018, the bank had 1,100 branches, of which 400 are in rural and semi-urban areas.

Yes Bank has a good number of branches in the rural areas to cater to the specific financing needs of the customers residing in those areas, Rajan said.

Besides, the auto loans is a new product line which seems to have good potential for the bank, he added.

In residential loans, the bank is seeing good opportunity.

"In mortgages space we are an active player in affordable housing finance, besides our existing customers who need a luxury loan. We are seeing an upswing in affordable housing. We are seeing that the projects are delivered on time and the money rotation is good both for the builder as well as the financier," he said.

Timely delivery of projects and government subsidy is also helping the affordable housing segment, which is boosting opportunities, he added.

The bank is currently involved only in those affordable housing projects that are in the periphery of metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, among others.

Rajan also said there is good traction in the affordable housing segment from the unorganised sector but the bank will be exercise caution before reaching out to those customers.