YONO to be stand-alone platform, says SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar

By Ankur Mishra

State Bank of India (SBI) will hive off its digital platform YONO (you only need one) into a separate entity allowing other banks to use it, chairman Rajnish Kumar told FE. Using a ‘pay per use model’, the lender expects to attract small banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and co-operative banks to the platform.

Kumar said other banks can use YONO platform without using the brand. Other banks, the chairman explained, need to connect with the YONO API (application programming interface) without going through the SBI’s core banking system. “Once the integration is done, other banks can use the platform by connecting the API with their back end. This will enable other banks to use YONO platform with their own branding,” Kumar said.

“Suppose, someone wants to use API of personal loan, we can allow that,” Kumar said. “Ultimately, SBI will also pay for usage,” he further added. However, SBI wants to utilise its full potential first, before making it an independent platform.

SBI has started preparing a separate balance sheet for YONO which earned a net profit of Rs 200 crore in the June quarter and on which 3,85,675 transactions take place daily. The lender aims to increase the customer size by more than 50% to 4.2 crore by March 2021 from current user base of 2.7 crore. The bank has added 71 lakh new customers during the pandemic between March and August 2020. Total number transactions on YONO have doubled to 1.1 crore in August 2020, from 66 lakh in March 2020.

The bank is also testing security aspects and the chairman said the platform will be hived off only after sorting all security related issues. “There is no point to bring a half-baked product in the market,” he added.

Kumar also specified that YONO platform is not just a mobile application, but an ‘omnichannel’ experience. In his opinion, the super app could be valued at $40 billion. However, any independent agency has not done a valuation of the company.