Supreme Court Holds Yes Bank's Rs 8,415 Crore AT-1 Bond Write-Off Illegal
The Supreme Court has held the permanent write-off of Rs 8,415 crore of Yes Bank's Additional Tier-1 (AT-1) bonds illegal, upholding a 2023 Bombay High Court ruling that had quashed the write-off over procedural lapses. The bonds, worth about USD 884 million, were written off in March 2020 during the RBI-supervised reconstruction — India's first such AT-1 write-off. Yes Bank shares fell 14.5% to Rs 18.12, their steepest drop since July 2020. The ruling exposes the bank to investor compensation claims and fresh capital needs; Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which became the bank's largest shareholder through its 2026 stake purchase, holds 24.9%.
Additional Tier-1 bonds are perpetual, unsecured instruments counted in Tier-1 capital under Basel III, with a loss-absorption clause at the point of non-viability | Yes Bank was founded in 2004 by Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur; the RBI imposed a moratorium in March 2020 and SBI led its reconstruction | Basel III was framed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision at the BIS, Basel