SBI plans to double YONO user base in 6 months: Rajnish Kumar

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, is planning to double its digital-banking app YONO (You Only Need One) customer base in the next six months, chairman Rajnish Kumar said on Tuesday. Currently, 24 million users are registered under YONO, the digital platform which offers all financial services and lifestyle products and services of the lender.

Speaking to shareholders at the bank's 65th annual general meeting on Tuesday, Kumar said SBI YONO has attained sizeable growth via the digital route by increasing the share of wallet and acquiring scale. In a bid to further scale up YONO, the public sector lender has set a target of doubling user registrations within the next six months. The digital platform would be further strengthened by offering new products via this app, such as home loans, car loans and personal loans, he said.

The SBI chief also said that the bank will institute 'work-from-anywhere' infrastructure and expects to save Rs 1,000 crore with this measure. Going forward, the bank will focus on cost reduction, rationalisation and reskilling of workforce, improving staff productivity and redeployment of workforce from admin offices to sales roles.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic is still playing out, FY21 will be a challenging year for the bank like any other bank or financial institution, Kumar said, adding that the bank is well prepared to deal with such challenges.

In the prevailing COVID-19 situation, SBI is focusing on the contactless digital banking channels to offer services to its customers, be it opening of account or applying for loans. Through YONO, customers can open an SBI bank account digitally, transfer funds, avail of pre-approved personal loan sans any paperwork, and get overdraft facility against fixed deposits.

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SBI through YONO has come up with various initiatives which include YONO Cash, PAPL, YONO Krishi and the likes, catering to all categories of customers. YONO has crossed the landmark of 51 million downloads and 24 million registered users in a little over two years. It has partnered with more than 100 e-commerce players across 20 plus categories. The bank recently launched the YONO Global app in the UK and Mauritius and plans to cover 9 more countries by the end of 2020.

By Chitranjan Kumar