On 28 September 2018, after announcing that he was going to step down as the managing director of YES Bank, Rana Kapoor had claimed: ‘Diamonds are forever. My promoter shares of YES Bank are invaluable to me.’
However, in a span of just fourteen months, Kapoor did a complete U-turn. He sold his entire stake in the bank, even as the shares continued to get hammered by investors.
Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur had founded YES Bank in 2004. On 5 March 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took control of it in an attempt to avoid the collapse of the bank, which had an excessive amount of bad loans. .
What led to one of the biggest banking failures in Indian history? Who is Rana Kapoor and, more importantly, what role did he play in the rise and fall of YES Bank?.
Furquan Moharkan takes you right to the start of Rana Kapoor’s career as a banker, charting his meteoric rise, his mercurial personality, the lavish lifestyle and the unravelling of it all. Kapoor’s story runs parallel with that of the fourth largest private bank in India. In what feels like a story straight from a financial thriller, The Banker Who Crushed His Diamonds uncovers the rot deep within YES Bank’s glittering success story. It serves as much as a cautionary tale as it exposes the chink in India’s armour against financial chaos.