Yes Bank, which was rescued from collapse by the largest bank in our country, SBI, and restored to good health, is on sale. From a huge net loss of Rs. 16,418.02 crores in 2020 and a loss of Rs. 3,462.23 crores in March 2021, the bank made a profit of Rs. 2,405.86 crores in March 2025.
Mr. Rajnish Kumar, former Chairman of SBI, in his memoir The Custodian of Trust, has mentioned how the decision to save Yes Bank was made on 5th March 2020 at Antilia, the palace of Mukesh Ambani, in the presence of Blackstone Managing Director Stephen A. Schwarzman (Global Investment Company). The then Deputy Managing Director of SBI, Mr. Prashant Kumar, was asked to resign from SBI and take over as Managing Director/Administrator of Yes Bank, sitting in a car with Mr. Rajnish Kumar on Altamount Road. SBI invested Rs. 7,250 crores in Yes Bank shares and became the biggest shareholder. Mr. Prashant Kumar has done an excellent job and made a profit of Rs. 1,066.21 crores in 2021 itself. Thereafter, there was no looking back. He is a great HR leader too.
The bank should have been made a public sector bank. Instead, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Japan, is permitted to buy a 20% share for a price of Rs. 13,482 crores. SMBC will have its representative on the board of Yes Bank. Later, it will take over the bank. Already, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) hold 26.87% share. Domestic Financial Institutions (DIIs) hold 39.53%, of which SBI holds 23.97%, and the public owns 33.6% share. Once SBI sells 20%, SMBC becomes the largest shareholder and, in fact, the owner. Why this sale of our assets to foreigners?
Yes Bank has Rs. 41,509.23 crores as Reserves and Surplus. Deposits of Rs. 2,84,525 crores. It has investments of Rs. 85,104 crores. It has 1,200 branches and is going to add another 100. Why sell this on a platter to foreigners?
In 2020, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which was started at Karur, Tamil Nadu in 1926, was sold to DBS Bank, Singapore. It is making profits year after year. The original investors who nurtured the bank for 95 years were paid nothing for their shares.
Now, IDBI Bank, which was started as a Development Finance Institution in 1964 to specially cater to industries and converted into a universal bank in 2004—killing the original objective—is also put on sale. When it faced a crisis in 2019, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was asked to take over, investing in 51% of the shares. LIC has nurtured it into a huge profit-making bank with 20,078 employees, a profit of Rs. 7,515 crores as on March 2025, and a branch network of more than 2,000 branches across the country.
The main bidder is Canada-based Fairfax Financial, which is going to buy 30.48% of LIC’s share and 30.24% of Government of India (GOI)’s share, which amounts to 60.72% share. Fairfax becomes the owner.
Fairfax already owns Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd. Fairfax also has a history of controversies. When the bank is doing excellently well and LIC has done a good job, why force LIC to sell 30% of the shares? When banks were allowed to start insurance companies, LIC asked for permission to start a bank. This was denied. Now it’s running a bank well. It should be allowed to continue. Why should GOI sell shares of a profit-making bank? This is a gross injustice to the people of the country.
Axis Bank came from Unit Trust of India and UTI Bank. Now, 55.4% of its shares are with foreigners. HDFC was a public sector Housing Development Corporation started as a Development Finance Institution (DFI). It was converted into a universal bank, and now in HDFC Bank, 55.3% of the shares are held by foreigners.
Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India—ICICI, a public sector DFI—was converted into ICICI Bank, and now 55.7% of the shares are held by foreigners.
RBI has permitted up to 74% foreign investment in private banks.
Banks are not run with the capital of these investors. Banks are run with the deposits of Indian citizens and are expected to lend to Indian citizens for various purposes. The Indian depositors are paid very little interest, the Indian borrowers are charged high interest on the loans, and the profit goes to the foreigners who invest only a little in the shares. What an irony!
What is Mr. S. Gurumurthy of Swadeshi Jagran Manch doing in the RBI Board? What is the Finance Minister, who talks of Make in India, doing? Vikshit Bharat for foreigners? 140 crore Indians are going to be looted by these foreigners. To send out one East India Company it took 200 years. Now it will take centuries if we don’t stop these evil designs.
Why does the government want to sell everything to private corporates within the country and abroad? Whom are they serving? Indian voters or foreigners? Private is only for profit. Public is for service with a profit.
Time to tell these facts to the masses of the country. Public sector banks were merged, branches reduced, staff strength is not at all adequate, and people are pushed to these private banks owned by foreigners and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs).
Without the deposits of the people, none of them can survive. Time to claim good interest on current account, savings bank account, and fixed deposit accounts. Time to demand lower interest on loans to farmers, MSMEs, Self-Help Groups of women, education loans, etc.
It’s a wake-up call.
STOP SALE OF BANKS TO FOREIGNERS. NATIONALISE PRIVATE BANKS AND SERVE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA.
Thomas Franco is the former General Secretary of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation and a Steering Committee Member at the Global Labour University.
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