SBI plans to increase Yono user base to 250 million in 2 years

Mumbai: Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to expand its Yono (you only need one) customer base to 250 million in the next two years, a top bank official said.

At present 2.5 million users are registered under Yono, the digital platform which offers all financial services and lifestyle products and services of the lender.

"We have big plans to push Yono and our target is very ambitious for the next two years. We are looking to increase the user base to 250 million," SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar told reporters after the launch of the new digital initiative.

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.

Kumar said Yono currently is a separate platform but will soon be integrated to the bank's mobile wallet, Buddy. Recently, SBI entered into a digital partnership with Reliance Jio to increase it's digital customer base.

SBI and Jio has a joint venture for payment bank - Jio Payments Bank - wherein Jio holds 70 per cent and the balance is with SBI. Meanwhile, the bank on Wednesday launched a new digital initiative - Mopad (Multi option payment acceptance device), which will enable customers to make payments through cards, Bharat QR, UPI and SBI Buddy (e-wallet) on a point of sale (PoS) terminal.

It will provide digital convenience to customers and ease of doing business for merchants at the same time. For all transactions done through Mopad, the customer will get a charge-slip as a proof of payment, which is not available for traditional Bharat QR/UPI/SBI Buddy transactions.

SBI has 6.23 lakh point of sale (PoS) terminals deployed across the country. It has decided to roll-out the new facility on all PoS terminals in a phased manner.