Yes Bank lays off 500 employees to cut costs, company to restructure internally

Yes Bank, in an internal restructuring exercise, has laid off 500 employees, with more layoffs to come across different verticals, to cut operating expenses

Yes Bank, in an internal restructuring exercise, has laid off 500 employees, with more layoffs to come in the next few weeks, according to a report by The Economic Times.

Yes Bank, in an internal restructuring exercise, has laid off 500 employees, with more layoffs to come across different verticals, to cut operating expenses (Abhijit Bhatlekar/ Mint)

The private lender has let go of people across various verticals, from wholesale to retail, with the branch banking segment dealing with the most impact, according to the report.

All employees, according to sources cited by The Economic Times, have been given three months of pay as severance. The move comes at a time when most private lenders are expanding their employee base and hiring.

Yes Bank's internal restructuring exercise, at the advice of a multinational consultant has been done to primarily improve efficiency and reduce operating costs.

Yes Bank's operating expenses had grown by 17 per cent last year. The private lender was spending Rs. 3,774 crore on its staff at the end of the last financial year. They had 28,000 employees at the end of financial year 2024 and assed 484 people in one year. 23,000 of this staff belonged to the junior management category.

With higher operating expenses, their operating profits were not faring well. The private lender, which has SBI as it's biggest shareholder, grew 6.4 per cent from ₹3183 crore to ₹3386 crore in FY24, according to ET.

The private lender is attempting to move away from manual intervention and towards digital banking to cut down costs.

A spokesperson told ET that,“In our endeavour to be an agile, future-ready organisation which is leaner, faster, customer centric, and operationally efficient, we periodically undertake a thorough review of the way we operate and optimise our workforce.”

They also added,“We are committed to delivering the best of our banking services to our customers and deliver the full potential of the bank to our stakeholders.”

Yes Bank has previously undergone a similar exercise in 2020 when managing director Prashant Kumar took over with the support of the RBI to save the company from going under. At the time a lot of senior staff left the bank.