- lead - YES Bank is India’s sixth-largest private-sector universal bank, but its defining identity is that of a digital-first institution rebuilt from the ground up - it was rescued and reconstructed in March 2020 under a government-backed scheme after a period of stress, bringing in a new board, new leadership, and a fresh strategy. Today it is the preferred banker to India’s new-age economy, processing nearly one in every three digital transactions in the country, and its largest shareholder is Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which took a 20% stake in what was described as the largest cross-border investment in an Indian private-sector bank. Everything the bank does is built on the “Power of One YES Bank” concept - a single, consistent customer experience across every business line, delivered through a blend of wide physical reach and a market-leading digital payments and API infrastructure.
Business segments
Four engines at different stages - a digital transaction backbone that feeds the entire bank, a retail and commercial lending franchise built on secured loans, a corporate and institutional business anchored in ecosystem banking, and a financial markets and advisory capability that turns expertise into relationships - each layered on the same technology platform.
1. Digital and transaction banking: the engine that powers everything else
The bank is the number-one UPI payee processor in India, handling roughly 16 billion transactions a month, which makes it the default banker for the country’s fintech and e-commerce companies.
- One in three digital payments - YES Bank holds a 57% market share in UPI Payee PSP and a 36% share in UPI Payer PSP, and it is also the top acquirer for AePS (the Aadhaar-enabled payment system used in rural areas), powering about 27% of those transactions through more than 682,000 partner outlets.
- APIs are the distribution channel - the bank has built an in-house stack of more than 1,500 APIs, which lets fintechs, e-commerce platforms, and corporate clients plug banking services directly into their own apps; it processes around a million banking requests a month this way.
- Transaction banking locks in corporates - the YES TRANSACT suite covers 10,000-plus corporates and 45,000 retail and SME clients with cash management, trade finance, supply-chain financing, and escrow services, and 95% of corporate CASA is embedded with transaction banking products and solutions, so clients stay for the tools, not just the credit.
2. Retail and commercial banking: the secured-lending franchise
Nearly 80% of the retail loan book is secured against property, vehicles, or gold, and the bank originates most of it digitally - 96% of savings accounts and 99% of credit cards are opened through straight-through digital journeys.
- Secured loans dominate the mix - the retail advances book of INR 1,26,056 crores is spread across secured business loans, home loans, affordable home loans, commercial vehicle and construction-equipment loans, and auto loans, with average loan-to-value ratios of about 66% on affordable home loans and 56% on loans against property.
- Branches are the sourcing engine - the bank operates 1,334 branches, with 74% of them in the top 200 deposit centres, and the share of retail loans sourced through its own branches has risen from 37% to 50% in two years.
- Tiered programmes for every wallet - YES Private is the by-invite wealth-management programme for High/Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs/UHNIs); YES First and YES Grandeur serve affluent and emerging-affluent customers; YES Prosperity is the mass-retail proposition with savings and current-account variants for women, seniors, minors, and salary earners.
- SME lending is granular and secured - the commercial banking book of INR 69,947 crores serves small and mid-size corporates through 800 relationship bankers in 62 cities, with 82% of the SME book in collateral-backed products and 58% of customers having an exposure of less than INR 1 crore, so no single borrower dominates.
- Credit cards are a digital acquisition play - the bank has 8.86 lakh cards in force and a book of INR 12,022 crores, with 99% sourced digitally; it was the first bank to issue an ONDC Network Gift Card and has issued over 5 lakh UPI-enabled RuPay credit cards.
3. Corporate and institutional banking: the ecosystem bet
The bank serves large corporates, multinationals, financial institutions, and government entities by lending to the entire ecosystem - the client, its dealers, its vendors, and its customers - rather than just the balance sheet in front of it.
- Government banking unlocked by profitability - after three straight years of full-year profit, the bank became eligible for government and PSU empanelment, and it is now an agency banker for central tax collections and empanelled in states including Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, and Telangana.
- The startup and new-economy franchise - the mid-corporates team serves 69% of India’s unicorns and more than 1,500 startups, with a dedicated new-age banking team offering API banking, digital escrow, and advisory services, which makes the bank the default choice for companies that grow into the large-corporate segment later.
- International reach through a single branch - the IFSC Banking Unit at GIFT City, the bank’s only overseas office, offers foreign-currency loans and deposits in five currencies, and it grew its NRI liability book by 240% in FY 2024-25.
4. Financial markets and knowledge banking: expertise as a service
The bank is one of India’s top three bullion-importing banks and one of only 21 primary dealers authorised to underwrite government securities, and it uses deep sectoral research to win advisory mandates that later turn into lending relationships.
- Markets as a client business - the financial-markets team serves more than 35,000 clients across interest rates, foreign exchange, debt capital markets, and bullion, with the FX sales desk alone offering customised solutions to more than 25,000 clients pan India, including large and midsize corporates, PSUs, MNCs, banks, and private equity funds.
- Knowledge banking opens doors - the Food & Agri Strategic Advisory unit and the Corporate & Government Advisory unit execute project and policy advisory mandates for state governments and industry bodies; the e-mobility team has helped four state governments develop electric-vehicle policies and supported nine states in applying for central charging-infrastructure grants.
- Originate-to-distribute in project finance - the project-finance and loan-syndication unit underwrites large infrastructure and energy loans and then distributes them to other banks and NBFCs, which saves capital and generates fee income while keeping sector exposure diversified.
Group structure and partners
The bank is controlled by a consortium of strategic and financial shareholders, with its broking and wealth-management subsidiary consolidating the capital-markets piece of the universal-banking puzzle.
- YES Securities, the bank’s 99.28%-owned subsidiary, is a full-scale capital-markets intermediary with institutional and retail broking, investment advisory, and depository-participant services; the investment-banking business was moved back into the bank in January 2024, and the demat undertaking followed in January 2026.
- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation owns 24.9%, State Bank of India holds 10.8%, and Verventa Holdings (an Advent International affiliate) holds 8.5%; SMBC has the right to nominate two board members and pre-emptive rights to maintain its stake in any future capital raise.
- The bank holds a 9.9% stake in J.C. Flowers Asset Reconstruction Company, the entity to which it sold a stressed-loan portfolio of up to INR 48,000 crores in 2022 under a 15:85 structure, cleaning up the legacy book.