YES Bank claws back Rs 1.44-crore performance bonus of ex-MD Rana Kapoor

YES Bank said that it has not paid any bonus to Kapoor for FY17 and FY18. He drew a salary of Rs 6.48 crore for the ten months he served as MD & CEO, before his tenure ended in January.

YES Bank retracted the performance bonus of Rs 1.44 crore of former managing director and chief executive officer Rana Kapoor, whose term was cut short by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October last year.

“The board of directors of the bank had considered and approved clawback of 100 per cent of the performance bonus paid to Mr Rana Kapoor for FY 2014-15 (FY15) and FY16, net of taxes.

"The amount of bonus subject to clawback was Rs 6.2 million for FY15 and Rs 8.25 million for FY16,” said the bank in its annual report on Thursday.

YES Bank added that it has not paid any bonus to Kapoor for FY17 and FY18.

Business Standard had earlier reported that the RBI has kept private banks waiting on bonus payment to top executives.

Kapoor drew a salary of Rs 6.48 crore for the ten months he served as MD & CEO, before his tenure ended in January.

The bank’s current MD and CEO Ravneet Gill, who took over in March, was paid Rs 5.93 million for FY19.

The lender said it has executed a service contract with Gill, which includes notice period of three months, subject to RBI approval.

He has also been granted 5 million stock options on March 1, 2019, at Fair Market Value (FMV).

He may exercise the options granted according to the vesting schedule under the bank’s new MD & CEO Stock Option Plan 2019 - which is 20 per cent, 30 per cent, and 50 per cent each year - from the end of first year of the grant date, said the bank.

Gill did not hold any equity shares in the bank at the end of FY19.

The RBI on Tuesday appointed former RBI deputy governor R Gandhi as an additional director on the YES Bank board for two years, with effect from May 14.

This appointment, along with an RBI statement on the regulatory breaches in the bank’s functioning, points towards strained relations between the bank and the regulator.

Gill has been vocal about improving the bank’s image with the regulator and ensuring stricter compliance.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters