Yes bank to launch credit cards

In a step to fuel its ambitions to boost its retail division, Yes Bank has decided to launch its credit cards by the end of the fiscal 2010-11.
The bank will also enter into home and car loan divisions by March 2012, Rana Kapoor, founder, MD and CEO of the bank said.
Presently, the bank has 150 branches throughout 26 states in India. It intends to add another 100 branches this fiscal. Mr. Kapoor said, “We will take our branch count to 250 by end of March 2011″.
The bank has a retail clientele of 2, 10,000 and about 500,000 of corporate clients (as on March 2010.
The bank also intends to foray into lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), unsecured lending to small businesses, home loans and car loans to expand its retail business.
Kapoor said “We have enough headroom to rise around Rs 1,500 crore of hybrid capital, which will be raised domestically. In a rising interest rate environment, it is better to raise money”.
The bank has reported a net profit increase of 75percent this year.
The net interest margin of the bank has displayed a small increase to 3.2percent for the 4^th quarter of the fiscal previous year from 3percent in the same period previous year. Kapoor said “We should be able to keep our net interest margins at the three-plus-level in coming year too”.