Shares of YES Bank rose over 3% to their day’s high of Rs 24.38 on the BSE on Tuesday after the private lender announced a strategic partnership with Northern Arc Capital aimed at expanding access to credit, scaling digital lending, and offering debt investment opportunities to customers.
The collaboration brings together YES Bank's balance-sheet strength, digital infrastructure, and distribution network with Northern Arc Capital's origination, underwriting and technology capabilities.
The partnership is also a result of YES Bank's collaboration with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), which is the largest strategic shareholder in YES Bank and a key shareholder in Northern Arc Capital.
According to the companies, SMBC played a role in bringing together the two platforms, with the partnership expected to leverage synergies across origination, distribution, technology and balance-sheet capacity. The companies described the agreement as the first in a series of potential collaborations between YES Bank and Northern Arc Capital.
As part of the arrangement, Northern Arc Capital will use its network of 368 originator partners, comprising financial institutions, to facilitate credit deployment for YES Bank through its placements business. The partnership will provide the lender access to a diversified pipeline of credit opportunities sourced through Northern Arc's ecosystem of lending partners.
The companies said the alliance will also focus on expanding retail lending through Northern Arc's nPOS co-lending platform. The initiative will be supported by data-led underwriting, risk-sharing structures and portfolio monitoring frameworks, while leveraging Northern Arc's origination network across underserved markets.
In addition to lending, the partnership will extend to wealth and investment products. Northern Arc Investment Managers (NAIM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Northern Arc Capital, will offer Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and Portfolio Management Services (PMS) to YES Bank's retail, affluent and institutional clients.
Further, Altifi, Northern Arc Capital's online bonds platform, will be integrated with YES Bank's wealth management ecosystem, enabling customers to access fixed-income investment products through a technology-enabled interface.
A key aspect of the collaboration is the integration of technology platforms across both organisations. Northern Arc's proprietary platforms, including nPOS, NIMBUS and NuScore, will be integrated with YES Bank's digital lending architecture to support loan onboarding and credit delivery at scale.
Commenting on the development, Ashish Mehrotra, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Northern Arc Capital, said the partnership combines technology, distribution and risk management capabilities to improve access to financial services and strengthen credit market linkages.
Rajan Pental, Executive Director at YES Bank, said the partnership aligns with the bank's strategy of building technology-enabled credit infrastructure and will help expand formal credit access while also opening up private credit and alternative investment opportunities for a wider customer base.
