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Uncertainties over exchange rates and future policy moves might be posing challenges to banking sector, but private sector lender Yes Bank believes it also provides opportunities to get "quality business".
Looking to stabilise the highly volatile rupee, which touched an all-time low of 62.03 against the dollar this Friday, the central bank as well as the government have unleashed a slew of measures. Among them, the RBI hiked the lending rates to commercial banks by two% to 10.25%.
"These are challenging times but it also provides opportunities to originate good quality business... There are large opportunities, especially with diversity among the corporates," Yes Bank's Senior President (Financial Management) Jaideep Iyer told PTI.
Reflecting its strong business, Yes Bank posted 38% jump in net profit at Rs 400.8 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2013.
According to him, the current challenges as well as opportunities should be seen in the context of "origination (lending) capabilities getting shrunk due to risks".
Asserting that quicker decisions would help in capitalising on the opportunities, Iyer said the bank is looking for more clarity from the Reserve Bank of India.
"Surely, we are looking for more clarity from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)... It can be either way," he noted.
Meanwhile, he said that Yes Bank is in a "preparatory mode" for the scenario when many of the temporary measures would be rolled back.
"Recent RBI actions are not so much aimed at interest rates but at the stability of exchange rates. However, it does not seem to have had the desired effect".
Despite good financial performance in the June quarter, Yes Bank's scrip has taken a beating amid RBI moves to squeeze liquidity and measures to curb rupee volatility.
Yes Bank has seen strong traction on CASA (Current Account, Savings Account) and retail deposits with its CASA ratio crossing 20% for the first time since inception.
About 74% of its loan book is linked to the base rate, which would help the bank in effectively transmitting higher funding costs by way of repricing the loans.
Besides, the lender has witnessed strong net interest income (NII) and continued focus on revenue diversity resulting in a healthy increase in fee income.
In the three months ended June 2013, the entity's NII rose nearly 40% to Rs 659.1 crore as against Rs 472.2 crore in the year-ago period.
