While thousands of clueless regular customers are running from pillar to post to get their life's savings withdrawn from the crisis-hit Yes Bank, it appears like a few of them saw it coming.

It has since emerged that the Vadodara Smart City Development Ltd (VSCDL), the special purpose vehicle floated by Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) for the Smart City project withdrew Rs 265 crore in the nick of time from Yes Bank.

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The money was transferred on Tuesday to a nationalized bank, just two days ahead of the restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Sudhir Patel, chief executive officer of the SPV and deputy municipal commissioner of the VMC, said the amount had been received from the Centre as part of a grant under the Smart City Mission and deposited with a local Yes Bank branch. It was withdrawn two days ago considering the problems faced by Yes Bank and transferred to a new account at Bank of Baroda, he said.

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Another high-profile depositor that managed to get its funds out of the troubled bank is the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam in Andhra Pradesh. In October last year, TTD Trust Board held a meeting and decided to withdraw deposits of Rs 1,300 crore from Yes Bank and invest it elsewhere. It is reported that TTD Board chairman YV Subba Reddy had foreseen the situation after going through performance reports of certain banks in which TTD has deposits.

It should not come as a surprise that a lot of people knew about the impending crisis in Yes Bank. According to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Rana Kapoor-led bank has been in turmoil since 2014.

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She also said that the bank was being under watch since 2017 and developments relating to it were being monitored on a day-to-day basis, she said. "Since 2017, the central bank noticed governance issues and weak regulatory compliance at Yes Bank, besides wrong asset classification and risky credit decisions." Sitharaman said that the government has asked the Reserve Bank of India to look into wrongs at the Yes Bank and assign individual responsibilities.



The Reserve Bank of India has capped withdrawals at Rs 50,000 and imposed strict limits on operations at Yes Bank, saying it was forced to step in after the lender's latest effort to raise new capital failed and as the lender “was facing regular outflow of liquidity.” It also superseded Yes Bank's board of directors and appointed former State Bank of India CFO Prashant Kumar as its administrator.