YES BANK to invest in AI in H2, 2025-26

During Q2FY26, YES BANK deepened its digital and technology transformation agenda to drive scale, efficiency, and superior customer experience across segments. 

“The Bank enhanced its digital onboarding journeys in Q2, 2025-26 with 97% of eligible savings accounts and 91% of current accounts opened digitally—80% of the savings accounts were activated instantly, while 60% of current accounts went live within four hours. DIY and co-origination journeys were expanded to integrate CASA, loans, demat, and insurance products into paperless flows,” says Mahesh Ramamooorthy, CIO, YES BANK.

The Bank’s flagship IRIS app for retail and IRIS Biz for business customers continued to see strong adoption, together processing over 1.2 crore transactions during the quarter with double-digit growth in active users and transaction values. 

On the transaction banking side, YES BANK launched YES Tax Pay, an integrated government tax collection suite now live across GST, CBDT, Customs, EPFO, and multiple state mandates, serving more than 75,000 active customers. “The Bank’s API stack expanded to over 1,500 live APIs, powering fintech partnerships and real-time integrations, while new features such as card activation via IVR and EMI on UPI credit card payments further enhanced customer convenience,” says Ramamoorthy.

Leadership in Digital Payments

Internally, AI and ML-based systems were deployed to strengthen risk monitoring, compliance, and workflow automation. “These initiatives translated into measurable gains, over 92% of service requests and 98% of credit card sourcing are now fully digital, significantly improving turnaround time and reducing costs,” informs Ramamoorthy. The Bank reinforced its leadership in digital payments, processing one in every three digital payment transactions in India and maintaining leading market shares across UPI, NEFT, and AePS. As a result, digital-led efficiencies contributed to a 16.9% year-on-year growth in non-interest income and a reduction in the cost-to-income ratio to 67.1% (73.0% in Q2 FY25), underscoring the tangible RoI from sustained digital investment.

Focus for H2, 2025-26

For H2 FY2025-26, YES BANK will continue to strengthen its digital offerings for SME and commercial banking clients through near-online capabilities across payments, trade, and lending products. 

“Building on initiatives like the YES Business Loan HUB and the SME Direct Service Desk, the Bank aims to deliver digitally assisted experiences that enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction. Leveraging its data and analytics framework, the Bank will embed AI-led capabilities across key business and operational processes, expanding the use of machine learning models in underwriting, collections, and risk monitoring to drive speed, precision, and automation,” says Ramamoorthy.

The Bank is also advancing towards a unified omnichannel experience for retail customers, ensuring frictionless onboarding and servicing across IRIS (mobile app), YES Online, WhatsApp Banking, and branch interfaces. 

Alongside these initiatives, there is a strong focus on strengthening digital risk management through AI-based transaction monitoring and real-time risk models. YES BANK will continue to scale its API and connected banking ecosystem through YES Connect and Banking-as-a-Service partnerships, deepening client engagement and creating new digital revenue opportunities. The overarching focus remains on driving sustainable, data-led growth while maintaining robust risk governance and capital strength.

Notably in FY 24-25, the bank added the value of certain software to its fixed assets meaning it treated those software purchases as long-term investments, not just regular expenses. As per the annual filings by the bank, in the year ending March 31, 2025, it added software worth Rs 478.99 crore. In the previous year ending March 31, 2024, it had added software worth ₹380.02 crore.