State Bank of India has launched a suite of AI-powered digital innovations on its YONO platform, enhancing both retail and business banking services. These new features include a 3-in-1 digital onboarding process, a sustainability tracker, integrated trade finance, and an AI virtual assistant, aiming to provide intelligent and future-ready banking experiences for its 53 crore customers.
'The real question is how best to leverage technology to deliver better services, all the way to the last mile, where we still haven't been able to get across the financial literacy that can enable us to unlock the potential of the entire country.'
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will revamp its banking application (app) YONO and position it as a complete digital bank (DB) under a new rubric 'Only YONO' for enhancing customer experience and ease of use. The bank plans to bring in a consultant to help draw up the project plan, keeping in mind business goals for the next five years. With 54 million monthly active users (MAUs), SBI YONO has seen growth of over 35 per cent in MAUs in 2021.
The bank has already set up 68,000 'Yono cashpoints' and is in the process of scaling it up massively to over 1 million in the next 18 months, which will make the necessity to have a card even less.
Apart from fulfilling banking services, one can access more than 100 e-commerce sites, book tickets, and even pay for small value groceries through the app. The bank is now proposing to allow other banks to use this to serve their own customers.
While a giant, it's a nimble-footed one, and is growing at a speed that even some of its private sector peers find enviable.
Between FY18 and FY24, it doubled its balance sheet. Despite being a late entrant in some segments, it has been able to grab market share, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India has seen a perceptible increase in the number transactions happening at its multiple digital channels, with the percentage moving from 60 per cent in the pre-pandemic period to 67 per cent currently, chairman Dinesh Khara said. The rise in the number of digital transactions at the bank was largely driven by pick up in e-commerce during the pandemic-induced lockdown, which restricted movement, he said.
The governor made it clear that the RBI is aware of what's happening and acts accordingly, but doesn't make a noise about that, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Do you save more money if you use bank portals for online shopping?
The country's largest bank, which has about 25 per cent market share, has also decided to do away with the charges on fund transfer through mobile phones using the IMPS from August 1.
But what do banks gain by opening their apps for all? The answer -- rival bank's customers under their fold.
The newly-appointed chairman of State Bank of India (SBI) Dinesh Khara on Wednesday said maintaining quality loan book, safety of employees and customers will remain his top most priorities. Khara, who took charge on Wednesday, said the bank will continue to strive for even better customer experience.
SBI chief Rajnish Kumar said the focus going forward will be on cost reduction, rationalisation and reskilling of workforce, improving staff productivity and redeployment of workforce from admin offices to sales roles.
In the start-up world, hitting the $1-billion mark, which accords the "Unicorn" tag, is a milestone. Enterprises typically reach the milestone only by series C or series D, or three to four funding rounds later. Zeta achieved it at the first one. On May 25, the six-year-old banking tech firm raised $250 million from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, at a post-money valuation of $1.45 billion. "This is the first time we have raised institutional money," Zeta co-founder Bhavin Turakhia beamed on the conference call. This trajectory is uncommon in start-ups.
The background work of creating a suitable digital architecture of a website also remains unfinished as it has been a challenge to shortlist technology partners.
'When there is unlocking, there is demand revival.' 'This is going to be the main growth engine in this kind of an economic scenario.'
In a bid to gain a bigger share of the customer's wallet, banks are ramping up their cross-selling initiatives.
Relations with the government, the bank's majority owner, are a tricky issue for all SBI chiefs, and, like all his predecessors, Khara will be closely watched for his equations with the finance ministry representative on the SBI board.
Why are investors gung-ho about State Bank? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
