State Bank of India (SBI) will not spin off its mobile banking app YONO into a separate unit, but would like to leverage it to create value for stakeholders — customers, employees and shareholders, said Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara.

“YONO is a distribution platform for us. So, we cannot think of spinning it off. But yes, of course, we will fully sweat it so that it will create exceptional value for all our stakeholders,” said Khara at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF).

He emphasised that SBI is mindful of mis-selling. So, it introduced only the commoditised products and services through the app.

“In a quarter, we are earning about ₹100 crore of commission/fee income from subsidiary companies by rolling out their products through YONO.

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“…Pre-approved personal loans is a very established product on YONO. We have added pre-approved business loan. Almost ₹600 crore (worth of pre-approved business loan) is being dispensed every month,” said Khara.

The SBI chief observed that despite having 22,400 branches, 84 per cent of the Bank’s transactions are digitised. Almost 33 per cent of the customers using YONO are from semi-urban areas.

He said an upgraded YONO 2.0 will be launched by the end of the current financial year. To a question on the outlook for credit, Khara said: “There is a very clear visibility of demand from large corporates…when it comes to adding capacity, we are seeing that in some of the sectors there is very clear demand.

“There is huge demand in the retail sector. When it comes to infrastructure, there is no dearth of efforts and investments which are being put in… renewables, EVs and batteries are the new levers of growth in the economy.”

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He noted that the economy is booming with the kind of growth rate that has been seen in the first quarter. SBI expects credit growth of 14-16 per cent in FY24.

At another GFF session, SBI Managing Director Ashwini Kumar Tewari, observed that in the case of MSMEs, while digital is the buzz word, the key operative word is physical — that is being in touch.

“If you are not in touch with the MSME, if you don’t establish a relationship, I fear our lending will not go well even if we lend digitally…,” he said.