The State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest public sector bank, has announced a significant strategic shift towards digital banking with the rollout of the Yono 2.0 platform on Monday. To support this massive technological transition and expand digital adoption, the bank is planning a major recruitment drive.
Chairman CS Setty confirmed that SBI intends to hire 6,500 new employees who will be primarily dedicated to this digital focus.
The ‘Phygital’ Strategy and New Recruitment
The new employees will be added to SBI’s bank operations subsidiary, which currently has a headcount of 3,500 personnel tasked with digital migration.
- Role of New Hires: Setty stated that the new recruits will concentrate on helping customers migrate effectively to digital platforms.
- Strategy: This staffing push is a core component of the bank’s broader “phygital” strategy—a hybrid approach combining physical branch presence with robust digital services.
Aggressive Digital Expansion Goals
With the launch of Yono 2.0, SBI is setting aggressive targets for digital adoption:
- Customer Base Goal: SBI aims to more than double Yono’s customer base to 20 crore (200 million) users in the near future. This is a substantial leap from the current user base of 9.46 crore (94.6 million).
- Operational Capacity: The Yono app is currently designed to handle 1.6 crore customers daily and can support one lakh (100,000) customers simultaneously.
- Cost Reduction: According to Setty, this digital push will drastically reduce the customer acquisition cost, bringing it down to one-tenth of the traditional method.
App Enhancements and Future Focus
SBI’s digital expansion includes significant improvements to the Yono app’s accessibility and functionality:
- Language Expansion: The app is currently available in English and Hindi, but the bank plans to expand its availability to 15 Indian languages.
- Seamless Updates: Updates to the app will be pushed directly through app stores, ensuring a smooth and seamless upgrade process for users.
- Full Customer Reach: SBI aims to eventually expand Yono’s reach to serve its entire customer base of around 530 million users while also exploring opportunities to grow the platform globally.
- Younger Demographics: A key focus is the younger customer base, as nearly one-third of current Yono users are below the age of 30. This demographic is seen as critical for maintaining the bank’s long-term relevance in the competitive digital banking ecosystem.
Monetization is Not the Priority
While scaling the app, SBI indicated that revenue generation from Yono is not an immediate priority. The bank’s immediate focus is instead on achieving scale, adoption, and delivering a superior user experience.
The bank has already commenced development work on Yono 3.0, which is expected to bring substantial future upgrades in functionality, performance, and user experience.