What Yes Bank customers can do

It’s the beginning of the month and RBI’s moratorium on Yes Bank along with a cap on withdrawals makes it tough to pay bills, EMIs and SIP debits for the private sector lender’s customers.

As of now, the bank’s customers cannot do much, except withdraw the ₹50,000 that has been allowed by the RBI.

This is similar to what the RBI had done in the case of the crisis-ridden Punjab and Maharashtra Bank last year when it had put it under directions and limited withdrawals.

The RBI has already assured depositors that their interests will be protected and an expected bailout with a merger with State Bank of India will also ensure that the deposits of Yes Bank account holders will be protected. It is also expected that in the next 30 days, the government and RBI will have put Yes Bank on track.

Meanwhile, with the increase in deposit insurance to ₹5 lakh per depositor, it would mean that at least this amount would be safe for customers in case of any eventuality.

For electronic clearing service mandates and postdated cheques for payment of EMIs, customers will have to make immediate arrangements.

“But given that the moratorium and RBI instructions came on the 5th of the month, many such transactions by customers would have already taken place,” said an expert who did not wish to be named at present.

Exceptions will be made in a few cases, and customers will be allowed to withdraw up to ₹5 lakh.

Some mutual funds are promising to make arrangements for redemptions for Yes Bank customers.

“If clients want to change their Redemption bank account mandate from Yes Bank to any other bank, they can send a request to Mutual@kotak.com. We shall process the request for tomorrow's redemptions so that their money isn't blocked,” Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak AMC said.

“We at Edelweiss AMC shall make sure that redemption payouts are not made to Yes Bank accounts tomorrow onwards. Please contact us and change your bank account to an alternate account. We will facilitate it,” said Radhika Gupta, CEO, Edelweiss AMC.

But on social media, Yes Bank customers were a worried lot with many wondering what will happen to loans that were just approved. Customers were also reported to be heading to ATMs to withdraw money.