Can’t write off AT-1 bonds of Yes Bank worth Rs 8.4k crore: SC | India News

The bench said RBI was “a mere bystander”, allowing the CET1 ratio of Yes Bank to drop to “an astonishing low of 0.6% while the business of Yes Bank was being carried out in a clandestine manner”.

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Bombay high court order which quashed a decision of the Yes Bank administrator to write off additional tier 1 bonds worth Rs 8,415 crore in March 2020.A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih said, “We see no reason to interfere with the impugned judgement. The appeals are dismissed.”“Putting the investors to such uncalled-for risk could have well been avoided. The purpose of the AT-1 bonds is imperative: it acts as a safety barrier to the bank from collapsing altogether. That purpose could have been served had RBI and Yes Bank acted in accordance with the terms of the Master Circular,” the court said.

The bench said RBI was “a mere bystander”, allowing the CET1 ratio of Yes Bank to drop to “an astonishing low of 0.6% while the business of Yes Bank was being carried out in a clandestine manner”.“It can’t be denied material irregularities in functioning of Yes Bank were noticed much prior… However, to have the investors at the receiving end of the administrative lapses would be highly unfair,” SC said. pti