Prashant Kumar on how he nursed Yes Bank back to health

The CEO of the lender that was near collapse opens up about the challenges of the turnaround.

19 October, 202211 min
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Prashant Kumar on how he nursed Yes Bank back to health

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Editor's note: Prashant Kumar looks relaxed, sitting in his eighth floor office at the Yes Bank headquarters that overlooks the runway of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The office is an aviation geek’s delight, its glass walls offering a front-row view of planes landing and taking off.  For the first time since he took the reins in 2020, the Yes Bank chief executive is probably enjoying the view. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India approved the extension of his tenure for another three years. The central bank also removed the nominee directors it had appointed to the board of Yes Bank, another indication that Kumar has fulfilled the mandate—rescue a bank on the verge of collapse.  “It is a rise from the ashes kind of thing,” Kumar tells us at his office, which itself holds significance. Until April 2021, the building belonged to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Yes Bank acquired it as part payment of loans taken by the group from the previous management. Moving the bank’s headquarters to Santacruz from Lower Parel’s One Indiabulls Centre was an attempt …

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