 "BS BFSI Insight Summit: SBI to drive in with Yono 2.0 in nine months")
State Bank of India (SBI) will roll out version 2.0 of YONO (“you only need one”), its integrated digital-banking platform, in nine months.
The country’s largest commercial bank, with Rs 60 trillion in assets, said it did not foresee any worries about bad loans.
“Of our 480 million customers, 70 million are on the YONO (platform). We have 10 million logins per day and Rs 1 trillion in assets. Ninety-seven per cent of the bank’s transactions are now non-branch,” said SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara during a fireside chat at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit.
About 63 per cent of its savings bank accounts and 35 per cent of retail asset accounts have been acquired digitally through YONO. The bank aims to be agile and imaginative in respect of its digital offers so that YONO becomes a “primary digital bank of choice” in the coming years, Khara said.
In September this year, SBI had said it planned to take YONO’s global footprint to 13 countries from the current nine -- that would include the United States, Singapore, and Oman -- over the year in geographies where it has a retail presence.
Khara said: “On technology, it is important to upgrade and evolve ... We need to invest in technology (because) we represent 20 per cent of the Indian economy.”
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On retail banking, he added: “Retail looks easy, but its quality depends on sourcing, underwriting, control and recovery”.
“I do not see any concern on NPAs (non-performing assets) in the foreseeable future and the economy’s macro indicators are doing well. We will ensure that the balance sheet is stress-free and be aggressive in providing for it,” Khara said.
The bank’s gross NPA ratio stood at 2.76 per cent in June 2023, down by 115 basis points (bps) year-on-year (Y-o-Y), while the net NPA ratio is at 0.71 per cent, down by 29 bps.
The provision coverage ratio (PCR), including written-off accounts, improved by 127 bps Y-o-Y and stood at 91.41 per cent in June 2023.
The slippage ratio for Q1FY24 improved by 44 bps Y-o-Y to 0.94 per cent while the credit cost for the period was better by 29 bps to 0.32 per cent.
SBI’s credit-deposit ratio stands at 65 per cent. Including the international business, it is 72 per cent.
Khara said “mobilising deposits is not a challenge. One can raise deposits but at what price the deposits are raised is important. This will decide the trajectory in terms of lending.”
He said: “We have around 22,500 branches, and over 500 regional offices serve our varied customer base. We ensure that we showcase the right products to our customers.”
And the bank “continues to have the highest CASA (current accounts and savings accounts) even today. I am mindful of the fact that we have to fight to ensure that our market share in CASA is maintained or even improves. So, we are evolving our strategies to meet these requirements of the customer and also of the bank.”
Its share of low-cost deposits – CASA -- stood at 42.88 per cent in June 2023, down from 45.33 per cent a year earlier.
On enhancing customer service, Khara said the bank started evaluating the branches on the net promoter score and made its employees sensitive to competition to improve it.