YES Bank shares crash 20% after Supreme Court sets aside plea on AT1 bond write-off: What investors should know

Yes Bank shares crashed 20% during the intraday trading session on Thursday, October 15, as investors focused on reports of a latest Supreme Court order setting aside the institutional lender’s plea to write off bonds amounting to around ₹8,415 crore.

NSE data showed that Yes Bank shares declined 20% to hit an intraday low of ₹16.96 apiece during Thursday’s market, in comparison to ₹21.20 apiece at the previous equity market close.

Trading volumes surpassed 622 million equity shares across NSE and BSE combined, triggering the high-volume losses during the market session on October 15.

Investors powered the selling cues of Yes Bank’s stock on Thursday, as the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Bombay High Court order and set aside the lender’s plea dented the overall sentiment.

Yes Bank not being able to write off these AT1 bonds will potentially create a significant negative liability for the lender, as it will not be able to absorb losses during a potential financial or funding crisis.

What was Supreme Court’s order?

Latest media reports suggest that the Supreme Court of India on Thursday, October 15, decided to quash the central government and Yes Bank’s appeal to write off the institutional lender’s Additional Tier-1 (AT1) bonds worth ₹8,415 crore, upholding the earlier Bombay High Court order.

The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih said that the court found no reason to interfere with the earlier High Court order ruling in favour of the bondholders.

“Therefore, for the reasons assigned in our judgment, we have held that we see no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment. The appeals are dismissed,” the bench said, as per a Mint report.

This comes after the court conducted its examination on whether Yes Bank’s administrator could write off the debt instruments. The essence of the case was centred on whether or not Yes Bank’s administrator has the legal authority to cancel the bonds as per the official reconstruction plan.

After the legal proceedings, the Supreme Court decided to conclude that it found no reason to interfere with the earlier Bombay High Court order siding with the investors like Axis Trustee Services and other bondholders.

In the latest ruling, the Supreme Court also reportedly clarified that the annual coupon payments on these AT1 bonds will remain unaffected by the outcome of the appeals, bringing a sense of relief for the bondholders.

However, the situation was far more critical in the equity market, as the negative liability potential arising from the ₹8,415 crore debt resulted in the stock’s crash on Thursday’s trading session.

When did the issue start?

Yes Bank’s crisis started back in 2018 when the lender was facing issues of rising bad debt, governance concerns and liquidity pressure, in response to which the RBI imposed a moratorium on the bank, restricting operations while initiating a rescue plan.

The private sector lender had written off these bonds back in 2020 as part of its asset reconstruction scheme after the bank’s financial crisis.

Later, the bondholders challenged the bank’s move, which was quashed by the Bombay High Court in January 2023, as a result of which Yes Bank, RBI, and the government appealed to the Supreme Court.

Yes Bank share performance

NSE data showed that Yes Bank shares have lost 21% in the last one-year, and are down nearly 15% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis in 2026.

The stock has lost 20% in the last one-month period and is down 10% in the last five market sessions, as per the exchange data. However, in the longer term, Yes Bank shares have risen 6.9% in the last three years and are up 38% in the last five years.

The lender’s market capitalisation (m-cap) was at ₹56,876 crore as of the trading session on Thursday, October 15, 2026.