RBI Comes Down Hard On Yes Bank For Disclosing ‘Nil Divergence’ Report, Says It Violates Confidentiality Norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a firm warning to Yes Bank for disclosing nil divergence report, which violates the confidentiality clause.

In a press release by Yes Bank earlier this week, the bank claimed that the central bank did not find any divergence in the asset classification and provisioning done by the lender during 2017-18 , reported Business Standard.

Furthermore, in a regulatory filing, Yes Bank has claimed that it received a letter from the central bank which observed that the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) was 'confidential' and it was presumed that except for the information in the form and manner of disclosure prescribed by regulation, no part of the report was to be disclosed.

“Therefore, the press release breaches confidentiality and violates regulatory guidelines. Moreover, NIL divergence is not an achievement to be published and is only compliance with the existing Income Recognition and Asset Classification norms," said the RBI.

The central bank found a significant difference of Rs 4,176 crore in the reported total NPAs in the books of Yes Bank for 2015-16 and judged total NPAs at Rs 8,373.8 crore for Yes Bank for 2016-17 against the declared total NPAs of Rs 2,018 crore which showed a divergence of 6,355 crore, or three times the reported amount.