Private sector lender YES Bank on Wednesday said it will set up its largest service centre in Chennai to address issues related to retail and SME customers across the country. This will be a centre of management excellence for the bank, officials said. The bank has leased out 4 lakh sqft in the first phase, and plans to commence operations in 3-4 months with an initial manpower of 1,500.
YES Bank founder & CEO Rana Kapoor, here to attend the Tamil Nadu’s first Global Investor Meet, said this will be the single largest retail and SME service centre for the bank. It will generate employment for 12,000 people by 2020 and manage all customers under the retail and SME categories.
“By 2018, the bank would have leased out 9 lakh sqft in all and, by then, would employ 7,500 people. This would be the centre of management excellence of the bank and would be an HR-driven set-up on the lines of global companies, such as Google and HP,” he said. The total investment on this would close to Rs 125 crore.
“Currently, we have 700 branches, which is expected to go up to 1,500 by March 2018 and 2,500 by 2020,” Kapoor said. Another major reason for setting up the Chennai centre was that currently retail and SME business contribute 30% to the bank’s total business, which is expected to rise to 45% by 2018 and 50% by 2020, Kapoor said. Since the bank has been undergoing technological upgradation, the new service centre will help it address customer issues in a better way.
On interest rates, Kapoor said he expects a 0.5-1% cut in rates by March 2016, which would benefit textiles and steel sectors. “It is interesting to see that the WPI was down 8% between January and July 2015 compared to the same period last year. Similarly, CPI was down 3%,” he said.
According to Kapoor, the short-term concerns are US Fed policy and devaluation of Chinese yuan. “We have to see the outcome of the Federal Bank reserve board meeting. As the festive season is around the corner, we hope RBI will look into the interest part,” he said.