Yes Bank plans to issue its first international bond since 2020, amid renewed market confidence despite ongoing legal disputes over past bond write-offs and a challenging credit environment.
Yes Bank is preparing to tap overseas investors with a three-year dollar bond, a move that would mark its first international debt sale since the lender’s controversial 2020 write-off of additional tier-1, or AT1, securities, according to Bloomberg and NDTV Profit. The proposed issue would be benchmark-sized, and the bank is expected to hold calls with fixed-income investors as it lines up arrangers for the deal.
The planned sale carries more than fundraising value. It would amount to a fresh test of confidence in a lender that was rescued by Indian authorities after a severe crisis in March 2020, when its AT1 bonds were permanently written down as part of a reconstruction plan led by State Bank of India. Business Standard reported that the administrator has defended the write-down before the Supreme Court as legally valid and necessary for the bank’s survival, underscoring how the dispute over the lost bonds remains unresolved.
Since the rescue, Yes Bank has been trying to strengthen its balance sheet and rebuild market trust. In 2025, the banking arm of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group bought about a 25% stake, becoming the lender’s largest shareholder. The bank has also received credit upgrades on some rupee debt: Crisil Ratings lifted its rupee infrastructure bonds and Basel III-compliant Tier 2 debt to AA+ in August from AA-, citing better earnings, while Bloomberg said those same instruments were rated A- at the start of 2023.
The offshore bond, though, sits in a tougher credit context. NDTV Profit reported that Yes Bank’s dollar debt is rated Ba1 by Moody’s and BB+ by S&P Global Ratings, both one step below investment grade. The timing also coincides with a broader wave of Indian banks raising money abroad after Reserve Bank of India measures in June aimed at encouraging capital inflows and supporting the rupee. Indian lenders have raised $5.27 billion in the past two months, according to NDTV Profit, suggesting the market may be more receptive than it was during the depths of Yes Bank’s crisis.
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