The next retail offering YES Bank is lining up for 2015-16 is an inclusive credit card portfolio.
“Credit card is one of the areas we should foray into in 12 months or so,” said Rana Kapoor, MD and CEO of YES Bank. “We want to build a very comprehensive offering when it comes to credit cards, and are currently evaluating MasterCard as a partner.”
The mid-sized bank is also looking at credit card offerings with RuPay — a domestic card scheme launched by the National Payments Corporation of India.
The bank is also looking to boost its business through small loans via credit cards. “With a mix of MasterCard and RuPay cards, we can build a good credit proposition through cards,” said Kapoor.
YES Bank will also be offering premium credit cards to its customers. “We are at a stage where the bank is growing from a medium size bank to a small large bank, and want to make sure our retail products’ array becomes fairly comprehensive,” said Kapoor.
YES Bank recently forayed into the affordable housing loans market keeping in mind the new dispensation, where banks can also raise infrastructure bonds against affordable housing portfolio. “Affordable housing loan is an area where there is strong demand. It also qualifies as priority sector lending,” said Kapoor.
YES Bank is currently running pilots for its affordable housing loans portfolio in Manesar, Ghaziabad; the outskirts of Mumbai and Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The bank plans to leverage technology to enter the already crowded housing loan market.
“Positioning is the key for a young player like us because we are not a differentiator in the market,” said Kapoor. “The legacy players are fairly well entrenched in the housing loans segment but in affordable home loans we see a lot of new demand coming up.”
Kapoor said the bank is looking at rapid physical expansion too.