Take any smartphone and it’ll be loaded with apps enabling users to connect with friends, shop, dine, transact, and do much more. But the increasing number of apps could be trying at times and this is where SBI’s new offering — YONO — comes in handy. None expected such a game-changing initiative from a banking behemoth considering the over-crowded technology startup space. It also appears that SBI is moving beyond its core banking space dabbling with lifestyle choices of consumers.
But if you look closely, all apps involve banking transactions and that’s the market SBI intends to colonize. YONO will not only enabling banking transactions like account opening, making deposits or borrowing a loan, but do much more, tells P K Gupta, MD (Retail & Digital Banking), SBI in an interview with
Sunitha Natti. Excerpts:
What is YONO all about?
This goes beyond what any app does. There are a few things that can be done on this app, which cannot be done on any existing apps. It allows you to open a full-fledged savings account online simply by authenticating the account using Aadhaar and a one-time password. But you need to visit the branch just once, for biometric authentication after which it gets converted into a regular account. The simplicity of the app is it can be operated on a mobile or a computer. We looked at consumer usage pattern and intended to make it easier for customers to transact. We looked at how to reduce the number of clicks to transactions and make it more intuitive.
What makes the app unique?
This is the country’s first such app that aggregates several apps on to a single platform. That’s why it’s called You Only Need One (YONO).
Basically, the idea is that, if you know one app, through this, you can do everything. To begin with, we have apps covering 14 categories including shopping, dining, entertainment etc. We have roped in all major players like Amazon, Ola, Uber, and Airbnb. Besides, it also combines all SBI group offerings, where we have enabled SBI cards, SBI Cap Securities, and SBI Life. If you have an SBI account, you enter your credentials and your card gets linked and you can monitor from the app itself all transactions. You can even link your demat account and track your share transactions. As we go further, we will on board more merchants.
How can we measure the app’s success?
We have the advantage of having a huge number of existing customers of about four crore. Currently, over two crore customers are already using our mobile app and we hope at least 50 per cent will move to YONO in next 6-9 months. Even if you take non-SBI customers, people go by the most convenient offering available and we think that this is the best in the market. So it’ll help us do more new customer acquisitions. The app should be available in other languages, (starting with English now). Smartphone prices are coming down and connectivity is improving, so we expect more consumers should be able to use the app as we move towards digital transactions.
How secure is the app?
We have stringent security layers and we have been extensively testing the app for the last three to four months. In fact, some of our partners thought that our standards are much tougher than what they have seen elsewhere.
What’s next?
It’s a question of scaling up and we have the ability to do it. We will keep adding new features. Right now, it’s in phase 1, and in next 6-12 months, there will be more features. Basically, we are reimagining all journeys, we are looking at existing apps and seeing how we can do better. That’s why it is taking time. Otherwise, if it’s just migration, it’d be simpler. In fact, we have been working for the past 14 months on the app. This isn’t something we developed overnight. In the longer-run, we will be integrating all apps to the extent possible on to YONO. That’s the basic idea.