SBI Only Yono : SBI ready to launch a complete digital bank

State Bank of India (SBI) is planning a separate digital entity and will revamp its current mobile application, rechristening it ‘Only Yono’, as part of its decision to be future-ready, showed documents. SBI Only Yono: SBI ready to launch a complete digital bank

State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to implement the revamp in 12-18 months, including migrating existing Yono customers to Only Yono. Only Yono is envisaged as the next generation of Yono which will make SBI ready to launch a complete digital bank with a leaner and modular architecture, more streamlined journeys, sleek and personalized customer-centric design and capturing value from ecosystems,” according to a notice by the bank seeking consultants for this initiative.

Globally, banks have experimented with the idea of opening separate digital entities to cater to a defined customer segment, providing a more targeted approach than ever before. In India, a Niti Aayog discussion paper released in November last year recommended a new segment of regulated entities – full-stack digital banks. To be sure, there is no separate licensing arrangement for such banks by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but lenders want to be prepared if and when the regulator floats such a proposal.

While the concept of digital bank is not standardized in India and is defined by individual banks, SBI believes that the Niti Aayog discussion paper on licensing of digital bank may result in formal guidelines by the regulator. Launched in 2017, Yono crossed 70.5 million downloads as on 31 March 2021 and had a user base of 37.09 million.

Also Read: Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G, Note 11 Pro launched. Price, Specifications

Earlier, the bank was actively looking to spin off Yono into a separate subsidiary with then chairman Rajnish Kumar saying in September 2020 point that it could fetch over $40 billion. However, the bank has not yet gone ahead with this plan. That apart, Mint reported last December that Jio Payments Bank, the 70:30 joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and SBI, could see its formal launch delayed further as the company is still working on its business model.