SBI launches YONO, an integrated app for financial services

State Bank of India, the country’s largest public sector bank, has launched a unified integrated app called YONO (You Need Only One) that would offer all kinds of financial and lifestyle products.

The omni-channel platform, which will be officially launched tomorrow by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, will allow customers to meet their lifestyle needs across 14 categories from booking cabs to paying for medical needs -- all under one roof. For this, the bank has partnered with 60 e-commerce players, including Amazon, Ola, Flipkart, Yatra, Swiggy and BYJU’s. Offline players such as Thomas Cook, Shoppers Stop and Cox and Kings are also part of the SBI partnership.

Rajnish Kumar, SBI Chairman, said during a conference here today that the portal has been designed to offer maximum customer convenience and that the product has been developed by SBI using artificial intelligence, predictive analysis and machine learning. It can be accessed through both Android and iOS platforms.

“India is going digital at an unprecedented pace and we are taking significant strides in the digital banking space,” he said, adding that SBI has over 42 crore customers, of which, about seven crore are using some mode of digital transaction.

SBI also owns a digital wallet called SBI Buddy and has apps for almost all its services. Over a dozen different apps will be integrated into YONO. He also added that the bank has been quite aggressive in digitisation of its services.

“We have spent almost ₹4,000 crore alone on digital initiatives this year and this is going to go up every year,” Kumar said, adding that SBI has a 30 per cent market share in the digital space.

With YONO, Kumar said that customers can open an SBI account in just five minutes, transfer funds in just four clicks, avail loans, get overdraft facility against FDs, and access chat bots for any assistance.

Kumar said valuation of stressed assets facing insolvency proceedings is unlikely to be impacted with the amended Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code that debars promoters who have been tagged as wilful defaulters from bidding for such assets.

“The changes in the law will not bring down the valuation of the assets under resolution because there is lot of interest in these assets. Valuation has nothing to do whether the existing promoters are allowed to bid or not. Assets will go only on the fair value of the enterprise,” Kumar said.

(With inputs from PTI)