Bombay HC refuses interim relief to Yes Bank in a case against Asit Koticha, ASK Group, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The Bombay High Court has refused to grant any interim relief to YES Bank in the ASK Group transaction involving founder Asit Koticha.

The bank wanted the court to direct Koticha to deposit about Rs 379 crore from the proceeds he is receiving after selling his stake in flagship group company ASK Investments to private equity major Blackstone.

In August, Singapore-based BCP Topco XII Pte Ltd, an investment vehicle of Blackstone, had entered into share purchase agreements with Koticha to acquire his majority shareholding in ASK Investment Managers Ltd.

“I have no manner of doubt that the balance of convenience is not with the plaintiff (Yes Bank),” observed the court in its 17-page order. “The prejudice that is likely to be caused to one or more of the many defendants far outweighs any possible prejudice to the plaintiff.”

Justice GS Patel, in his order of September 24, has now posted the hearing of the case to November 29

The genesis of the dispute lies in the credit facility of Rs 330 crore extended by Yes Bank in 2015 to Lily Realty Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Asit Koticha. At the time of securing the loan facility, Koticha had extended ‘Shortfall Security’ under which if the realty firm fails to pay its dues to the Yes Bank, he will pay the shortfall.

Later, Lily Realty was classified as NPA in February 2020.

Munaf Virjee, Managing Partner of law firm ABH Law that appeared for Asit Koticha, and Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam declined to comment.

A mailed query to Yes Bank did not elicit any response. Rohan Dakshini, partner at Rashmikant & Partners, who appeared along with Senior Advocate Dinyar Madon for the bank, also did not comment.

On August 30, 2021, Yes Bank issued a shortfall demand notice to Koticha asking it to fund the shortfall to the extent of over Rs 379 crore. When Koticha declined, the bank approached the court.

Koticha agreed to sell his majority stake to BCP Topco at Rs 707 a share, for a total consideration of over Rs 606 crore. However, from this amount about Rs 307 crore and Rs 145 crore would be paid to IIFL Wealth Prime and IDBI Trusteeship, respectively, under various debt obligations.

Lawyers for Yes Bank argued that whatever remains after paying both IIFL Wealth Prime and IDBI Trusteeship should be put in an escrow account or should be deposited in court.

However, countering this, Koticha, through his lawyers argued that this is nothing but a recovery suit.

“It cannot be that the attachment before judgment is obtained against Koticha here (High Court) and the final relief that is sought is to be obtained in the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) against Lily Realty and possibly also against Koticha as a personal guarantor,” argued the counsel for Koticha.



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HDFC, Axis Bank and Yes Bank lead as corporates return to offices from WFH, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Financial organisations, including banks, fintech firms and NBFCs, are leading the return to offices from a long bout of work from home due to the pandemic.

HDFC, Axis Bank and Yes Bank are among the top corporates getting ready to reopen their offices as Covid wave ebbs amid the rise in vaccinations.

While some of the corporates have started operations at pre-Covid levels, others are seeking to get more employees to office.

What banks are doing

In line with the directives issued by governments, HDFC has 100% manpower at offices, while expectant mothers, female employees with children below 1 year of age, employees above 65 years of age, employees with co-morbidities and employees coming from any containment zones as defined by the authorities continue to work from home.

Kotak Mahindra Bank expects that 90% of the employees, who are fully vaccinated, will be back to office by November/December.

In branches and other customer-facing roles, it is close to reaching 100% levels.

At Yes Bank, around 40% of employees at our corporate office and other large offices work in hybrid models. The bank has a ‘Work from Anywhere policy’ in place to enable identified employees to work from alternative locations, in addition to working from their designated workplace.

Global scenario

A recent poll of leading U.S. and European banks found that while there would be a sharp decline in employees working five days a week in the office, the largest group still wants to work there four days. This data turns the consensus on its head, since bank managers are planning for more remote working than employees are demanding.

This view emerged this summer from an Infosys poll of 520 managers and employees at top U.S. and European banks. Seventy-one percent said they worked five days a week from the office pre-pandemic. Now, just 27% say they want that same schedule post-pandemic, although few want to be fully remote.

The largest group of bank employees (36%) say they want to work only one day remotely and the rest in the office. But fewer than half of managers (15%) anticipate that employees will seek this schedule. Also, managers consistently overestimated the number of workers who want to be in the office from one to three days a week.

As early as last September, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon required traders to come back into the office, saying that remote working has slowed decision-making, hampered apprenticeships and reduced spontaneous learning and creativity. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called remote working an aberration that was “not a new normal.”



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HDFC, Axis Bank and Yes Bank lead as corporates return to offices from WFH, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Financial organisations, including banks, fintech firms and NBFCs, are leading the return to offices from a long bout of work from home due to the pandemic.

HDFC, Axis Bank and Yes Bank are among the top corporates getting ready to reopen their offices as Covid wave ebbs amid the rise in vaccinations.

While some of the corporates have started operations at pre-Covid levels, others are seeking to get more employees to office.

What banks are doing

In line with the directives issued by governments, HDFC has 100% manpower at offices, while expectant mothers, female employees with children below 1 year of age, employees above 65 years of age, employees with co-morbidities and employees coming from any containment zones as defined by the authorities continue to work from home.

Kotak Mahindra Bank expects that 90% of the employees, who are fully vaccinated, will be back to office by November/December.

In branches and other customer-facing roles, it is close to reaching 100% levels.

At Yes Bank, around 40% of employees at our corporate office and other large offices work in hybrid models. The bank has a ‘Work from Anywhere policy’ in place to enable identified employees to work from alternative locations, in addition to working from their designated workplace.

Global scenario

A recent poll of leading U.S. and European banks found that while there would be a sharp decline in employees working five days a week in the office, the largest group still wants to work there four days. This data turns the consensus on its head, since bank managers are planning for more remote working than employees are demanding.

This view emerged this summer from an Infosys poll of 520 managers and employees at top U.S. and European banks. Seventy-one percent said they worked five days a week from the office pre-pandemic. Now, just 27% say they want that same schedule post-pandemic, although few want to be fully remote.

The largest group of bank employees (36%) say they want to work only one day remotely and the rest in the office. But fewer than half of managers (15%) anticipate that employees will seek this schedule. Also, managers consistently overestimated the number of workers who want to be in the office from one to three days a week.

As early as last September, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon required traders to come back into the office, saying that remote working has slowed decision-making, hampered apprenticeships and reduced spontaneous learning and creativity. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called remote working an aberration that was “not a new normal.”



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NPCI, YES Bank launch RuPay On-the-Go

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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has partnered with YES Bank to launch a contactless payments solutions — RuPay On-the-Go.

This was launched on Tuesday in association with fintech infrastructure partner, Neokred, and manufacturing partner- Seshaasai at the Global Fintech Festival 2021.

“RuPay On-the-Go will allow customers to make small and large value transactions from the accessories they wear every day. This innovative wearable payment solution would redefine the contactless payments space by eliminating the need to carry a physical card and enabling instantaneous payments with a simple ‘Tap, pay, go’ mechanism,” said a statement.

RuPay On-the-Go is an interoperable, open-loop solution that customers can use at RuPay contactless-enabled PoS at retail outlets and pay up to Rs 5,000 without the need to input the PIN. For payments above Rs 5,000, customers need to tap, followed by their PIN.

For online transactions, the BHIM YES Pay app provides a virtual RuPay card to customers that can be used for digital and e-commerce transactions, the statement further said.

“The wearable tech space is an integral part of driving contactless payments, and we are working toward building a secure and inclusive payments ecosystem with our partners,” said Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI.

Consumers without an existing YES Bank account can also avail of these wearables.

Anita Pai, COO, YES Bank said, “The RuPay On-the-Go smart accessories, such as keychains with tap-and-pay functionality, will enable customers to make digital payments securely, more easily and in style.”

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HC rejects bail pleas of Rana Kapoor’s wife, daughters, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The Bombay High Court Tuesday rejected bail pleas filed by jailed banker Rana Kapoor’s wife Bindu Kapoor and their daughters Roshini and Radha Kapoor Khanna in a case of alleged fraud caused to Yes Bank Ltd (YBL).

Kapoor is the cofounder of YBL who was arrested in the said matter in March, 2020.

Justice Bharati Dangre, after hearing all the parties had posted the matter today for the pronouncement of the order. The court gave an oral in the said matter.

The Kapoors, in three identical but separate bail pleas, challenged a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court order that rejected their bail applications and remanded them to judicial custody.

The trio since then have been lodged at Byculla district jail in Mumbai.

As per the CBI, Rana Kapoor and his family members had allegedly received kickbacks of around Rs 600 crore for an investment of Rs 3,700 crore made by Yes Bank in DHFL’s debentures.

Counsels appearing for Bindu Kapoor and her two daughters argued that they have so far extended fullest cooperation to CBI and was not arrested during the investigation.

“On August 20, 2021, the trial court took cognizance of various non-bailable offences and summoned applicants to appear before it as an accused. The applicants immediately submitted to its jurisdiction by appearing personally on September 4, 2021, and moved a bail application in terms of Section 439 of CrPC,” argued counsel for the Bindu Kapoor.

However, special counsel Hiten Venegaonkar, appearing for the investigation agencies countered this argument and said that the CBI court had already considered all these submissions before rejecting the plea.

Senior Advocate Amit Desai appeared for Roshini Kapoor in the case, while Mahesh Jethmalani, senior advocate argued for Bindu Kapoor and Radha Kapoor Khanna in the case.

“The interest of the investigation agencies stand protected as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties and bank accounts of the applicant to the tune of Rs 600 crore under various provisional attachment orders,” argued the petition filed by Radha Kapoor Khanna.

“Special Judge failed to consider that the applicant has been granted bail in the PMLA case arising out of the current FIR in the same facts and circumstances,” Khanna’s petition said.

The special court, while rejecting their bail petitions, had observed that the trio are involved in the wrongful loss of public money to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore, which belongs to the public at large, including bank depositors and shareholders.



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Mumbai HC refuses bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor’s wife, daughters in DHFL corruption case

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The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor’s wife and two daughters in a corruption and cheating case involving private sector lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL).

A single bench of Justice Bharati Dangre rejected the bail applications filed by Kapoor’s wife Bindu and daughters Roshini and Radha.

The three had approached the HC last week, challenging a special CBI court order of September 18 which refused them bail while noting that they had, prima facie, caused a loss of Rs 4,000 crore to the Yes Bank through illegal acts.

The lower court had remanded them in 14-day judicial custody and said they did not deserve any sympathy for being women.

The three are currently lodged at the Byculla women’s prison in Mumbai.

In their bail pleas filed in the HC, they had said the special CBI court gravely erred in observing that the accusations against them prima facie show complicity in having co-fraudulently and dishonestly received loans as quid pro quo for favour shown by the Yes Bank to DHFL.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had opposed their pleas and said there was nothing wrong with the special court’s order and that it was merely securing the presence of the accused for the purpose of trial.

The CBI’s case is that Rana Kapoor, who is currently in jail in connection with a related case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate, had entered into a criminal conspiracy with DHFL’s Kapil Wadhawan.

The CBI stated that between April and June 2018, Yes Bank invested ₹3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL. In return, DHFL allegedly paid a kickback of ₹900 crore to Kapoor in the form of loans to one DoIT Urban Ventures, a firm controlled by Kapoor’s wife and daughters.

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Dispute between Dish TV and Yes Bank escalates over corporate governance, fundraising plans, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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A dispute between Jawahar Goel, promoter of the Indian direct-to-home (DTH) service Dish TV, and Yes Bank over corporate governance and fundraising plans appears to be escalating as both sides have dug in their heels.

Yes Bank is seeking to dissolve the entire board and removal of the promoter family, as the bank is said to be of the view that the board is “functioning in cahoots” with the minority shareholders (that is the promoters), who “should not have representation” on the board, sources close to the bank said.

Yes Bank had sent a notice on September 3 for the removal as well as appointment of certain directors on the board of the company.

On Thursday, the bank called for an extraordinary general meeting of the Dish TV shareholders seeking removal of Goel, chairman and MD as well as other existing directors from the board and induction of 7 new directors.

“Yes Bank is well within its rights,” said an official close to the lender. “It should be a professionally-run board. As the largest shareholder, we have the right to dissolve board and instate a new professional board. The new board members should have requisite experience in the area and the promoter family should no longer exercise any control on the board or the company.”

The official also stated that a forensic audit should also be conducted on Dish TV as Yes Bank fears that several related party transactions have not been revealed, which could burn a hole in Dish TVs books.

Officials close to the private lender say that as the largest shareholder, it has the right to dissolve the existing board and place it with a professional one.

But people close to the company are raising questions on the lenders’ course of action and also whether it’s acting as a shareholder or a lender.

A financial investor close to the promoter family said that Yes Bank has been a lender to Dish TV for more than a decade and has always derived comfort on the business operations and financials from the existing management of Dish TV.

“All loans availed by Dish TV from Yes Bank have been repaid in full. However, now Yes Bank is acting in the capacity of shareholder (by virtue of acquiring shares through invocation of certain pledged shares). Dish TV has never been privy to any such borrowing arrangements and neither Yes Bank informed or took prior permission of Dish before granting such loans to borrower entities,” the investor said.

Email queries sent to Dish TV and Yes Bank remained unanswered till press time.

Earlier this week, Dish TV sought an extension of time for holding the annual general meeting of the company that was scheduled to be held on September 27.

“They (Dish TV) are trying to stall to make sure dubious investments don’t come out to the fore. We haven’t been able to access the books of accounts, nor our queries on several related party transactions been answered, these are all stalling tactics,” the official close to the development said.

However, a person close to Dish TV said that Yes Bank is trying to “derail” the ₹1,000-crore rights issue, as it will dilute the bank’s holding.

“The board of Dish TV had observed that in order to support the expansion of business and meet working capital requirements of the company, and also in view of the requirement to pay the licence fee, it was imperative to raise funds,” the person said.

Incidentally, Dish TV has been trying to raise funds through debt. However, due to low credit rating among other factors, it has not received any positive response from any of the banks.

Also, Dish TV has been witnessing 20-24% annual churn in subscribers, and accordingly, needs to acquire set-top-boxes (STBs) to compensate for the churn by acquiring new customers.

“Since majority of the cash flows of the company have been deployed towards debt reduction (to the tune of ₹2,800 crore in last three years), the company has not been able to spend adequate funds for acquiring new customers, either on STBs or on marketing and promotions, which has resulted in loss of market share,” said the person close to the company. Analysts feel that given the business projections and disruption caused by Covid-19 and OTT players, it is evident that Dish TV will be in need of additional funds to operate the business.

“Equal rights is available to all large and small shareholders of in proportion to their existing shareholding; now Yes Bank has to figure out if they want to act as shareholder or a lender,” the person close to the company said.



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Rana Kapoor’s daughter seeks exemption from personal appearance before the trial court, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Rakhee Kapoor-Tandon, the daughter of jailed banker Rana Kapoor has filed a petition before the Bombay High Court (HC) seeking exemption from in-person appearance before the trial court.

Kapoor-Tandon who is a non-resident Indian (NRI) and a resident of the United Kingdom has expressed her inability to travel to India owing to restrictions imposed due of Covid-19 pandemic, the plea stated.

On September 2, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court rejected Kapoor-Tandon’s plea seeking exemption from personal appearance.

“… the petitioner is a NRI, residing permanently outside India since 2016. At present, she is a resident of London, residing with her two minor children. The petitioner is unable to travel in view of various travel restrictions imposed by Govt. of UK, Govt. of India, civil aviation department and other agencies in the prevailing Covid-19 factors,”

The petitioner through the plea filed by her counsel Vijay Aggarwal has also appealed that her application be considered as she hasn’t been chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its recently filed supplementary chargesheet in the Yes Bank scam. “…no specific allegations regarding laundering against the petitioner in ED complaints,”it adds.

Last week, a special CBI court here observing that Kapoor’s family members including his wife and two daughters are ‘beneficiary’ of the fraud caused to Yes Bank Ltd (YBL) and have caused a wrongful loss of Rs 4,000 crore of public money, remanded them to judicial custody.

The The court had also observed that the accused showed ‘complicity’ with co-accused Rana Kapoor and are the ‘beneficiary of the amount fraudulently and dishonestly obtained by Kapoor’. “… they have received fraudulently and dishonestly the illegal amount pending to be a corporate loan of Rs 300 crore, Rs 300 crores and Rs 600 crores, so actual beneficiary of the said amount,” the order accessed by ET states.

Meanwhile, in a separate plea, Rana Kapoor has contested his police custody granted by the lower court. The HC in its earlier order had rejected the production application sought by CBI.

“…The special judge vide the impugned order dated August 14, passed on the remand application filed by the CBI… Seeking to declare the CBI remand and custody and all subsequent proceedings including the further custody of the petitioner as illegal and void ab-initio,” the plea seen by ET reads.

Last month, the CBI had filed a supplementary chargesheet against Kapoor, his family members and four former junior employees of the bank in connection with the corruption case, which pertains to the loans given to the now bankrupt financial firm DHFL. The accused were summoned and the hearing in the matter was scheduled for Saturday.

According to the CBI’s first chargesheet filed last year, in June 2018, Kapoor, then the head of Yes Bank’s management credit committee, sanctioned a loan of Rs 750 crore on an application by DHFL promoters, Dheeraj Wadhawan and his brother Kapil Wadhawan, in the name of Belief Realtors Pvt Ltd for development of a Bandra Reclamation Project. This amount was advanced to RKW Developers, a company controlled by Dheeraj Wadhawan although the bank’s risk management team had pointed out multiple and serious issues in the proposal.

The agency’s probe revealed that the loan of Rs 750 crore was not utilised for the stated purpose.

Simultaneously, Kapil Wadhawan is said to have paid a kickback of Rs 600 crore to Kapoor and his family members in the garb of a builder loan from DHFL to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Private Ltd (DUVPL). Roshini Kapoor, the youngest daughter of Rana Kapoor, is one of the directors of DUVPL.

After deducting a processing fee, an amount of Rs 632 crore was transferred to RKW Developers. This amount was then routed to other entities controlled by the Wadhawans—KYTAAdvisors and RIP Developers—to settle a loan obtained from DHFL for the same Bandra Reclamation Project in November 2015.



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Credit card war hots up ahead of festive season; cos announce a slew of tie-ups, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Consumers are set to get a flurry of new credit card offers as banks are stepping up on customer acquisitions. Banks are gearing up to grab a bigger share of the market which is set to grow as the economy opens up.

New card additions were the highest for ICICI at 655,000 during this fiscal while added 198,000 cards being the highest in the past 16 months.

HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank, on which RBI recently lifted a ban of issuing new credit cards, has announced a tie-up with leading payments company Paytm to start selling co-branded plastics before the onset of the festive season. The credit cards will be powered by Visa and will include offerings targeted at millennials, business owners and merchants, an official statement said.

Paytm has a reach of over 330 million consumers and 21 million merchants, while HDFC Bank has over 5 million debit, credit and prepaid cards, and serves 2 million merchants through its offerings.

HDFC Bank, the largest private-sector bank which also leads the credit card segment, was banned from issuing new credit cards for over eight months as a penalty for frequent outages. After the lifting of the ban, it outlined aggressive plans to regain lost market share in up to a year.

The bank had said that it will focus on distribution partnerships to achieve its target, under which it envisages ramping up new credit card sales to 5 lakh a month by end of the fiscal from 3 lakh in November 2021.

HDFC Bank and Paytm had last month announced a tie-up on the payments side. Paytm already has a tie-up with foreign lender Citi under which co-branded credit cards are issued. Citi is looking to exit retail banking activities in the country.

The launch of the HDFC Bank-Paytm co-branded cards is slated for next month, ahead of the festive season which typically sees a spurt in spends, the statement said, adding a full suite of products will be available by December.

Yes Bank ties up with Visa

Yes Bank has tied up with Visa to issue credit cards to its customers on the payment platform, which includes a suite of nine credit card variants. The Yes Bank card issuances were hit after RBI had banned Mastercard from issuing cards.

“The transition has been achieved within a record time of less than 60 days, ensuring ease for customers across segments,” the bank said.

Yes Bank and RBL Bank were hit the most by the Mastercard ban as their entire card network was on it. RBL Bank had announced a tie-up with Visa the day after the curbs on Mastercard were announced and resumed issuing cards from September 15. Yes Bank’s Visa credit cards, announced today, will service all segments–consumer cards, business cards, and corporate cards across YES First, YES Premia and YES Prosperity.

AU Small Finance Bank

AU Small Finance Bank (SFB) has issued over 40,000 credit cards since its launch a few months back, and more than half of them are first time users. The Jaipur based lender said it is the first SFB to enter semi-urban and rural areas with its own credit cards. It also offers a special Altura plus credit card to empower women to experience a limitless living.

In future, the bank is also working on bringing out its limited-edition cards, featuring the bank’s brand ambassadors Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani.

“The forthcoming festive season will lend further support to the picked-up momentum in the spends and new customers sourcing. However, a possible Covid 3.0 remains a key risk. We continue to believe that Citi Bank’s exit from the credit cards business along with the domestic corporate loan recovery cycle yet to pick up, provides good growth opportunities for the credit cards business, supported by improving macro-conditions,’ Axis Securities said in a note.



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Mastercard ban fallout: YES Bank partners with Visa for credit cards

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Private sector lender YES Bank on Monday announced that it has partnered with Visa to offer credit cards to its customers on the payment platform.

The private sector lender is also in the process of completing technology integration with NPCI and plans to issue Rupay branded credit cards in due course, it said in a statement on Monday.

YES Bank earlier had an exclusive tie up with Mastercard. However, its credit card issuances had been impacted after the Reserve Bank of India barred Mastercard from onboarding new customers on its domestic card network.

“With the partnership, the bank commences issuance of select credit card variants, consumer as well as commercial, on Visa’s payment network – the transition has been achieved within a record time of less than 60 days, ensuring ease for customers across segments,” YES Bank said on the tie-up with Visa.

Nine card variants

The suite consists of nine credit card variants on the Visa platform that service all segments – consumer cards, business cards, and corporate cards.

Also read: RBL Bank credit cards go live on Visa

Rajanish Prabhu, Head – Credit Cards and Merchant Acquisition, YES Bank, said, “Our partnership with Visa adds a new dimension to the bank’s sustained efforts in transforming and elevating end-to-end credit journeys for our customers. “

YES Bank is the second lender after RBL Bank to have announced a partnership with Visa in recent days.

Sujai Raina, Head – Business Development, India, Visa, said, “We are delighted to partner with YES BANK to launch an expansive suite of Visa solutions for their customers. At a time when consumers are turning to credit offerings for daily as well as discretionary spends, we are now extending an already strong relationship with the bank – across debit, digital and acceptance solutions – to a wide range of credit offerings.”

YES Bank, which has been ambitious about onboarding new customers for credit cards, has 9,99,495 credit cards outstanding by July-end.

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