To enhance customer experiences, banks are forced need to rethink their business models. Banks can’t go at it alone anymore. They need to create agile digital ecosystems and leverage their scale and existing commercial relationships to deliver a whole new customer experience.
And that's what India's leading bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), is doing.
It is tweaking its existing app YONO, and rechristening it as 'Only YONO, which will be a complete standalone digital bank. The new app will arrive within the next 12-18 months, and the existing YONO customers will be migrated to Only YONO. Launched in 2017, the SBI YONO (You Only Need One) app is said to have crossed 70.5 million downloads and 54 million monthly active users.
The SBI is in the process of choosing a consultant to help draw up the project plan.
But what is a digital bank?
The customer experience is the priority of Only YONO, and the bank expects that it will improve its cost-to-income ratio.
A notice put out by the bank said: "Only YONO is envisaged as the next generation of YONO which will make SBI ready to launch a completely digital bank with a leaner and modular architecture, more streamlined journeys, sleek and personalized customer-centric design and capturing value from ecosystems."
The notice added that the move is a part of the bank’s decision to be future-ready.
“Though YONO has been adopted by customers at a very high pace, in order to consolidate its leadership position, it has been decided by the bank to give YONO a revamp as Only YONO not only in terms of features and functionality but also in terms of ease of use and customer experience.”
India's policy think-tank NITI Aayog has published a paper on digital banks. They will issue deposits, make loans, and offer a full suite of services. However, they will principally rely on the internet. Digital banks are basically branch-less and contact-less.
However, there are no licencing regimes for them in place from the RBI for the time being. But sooner than later, the RBI will have to swing into action.
