SBI to Launch SBI YONO 2.0, Targets 20 Crore Users: CS Setty

SBI to Launch SBI YONO 2.0, Targets 20 Crore Users: CS Setty

SBI Chairman CS Setty says SBI YONO 2.0 is a major tech upgrade to improve customer experience and double YONO users to 20 crore in two years.

The State Bank of India (SBI) is preparing to launch an upgraded version of its flagship digital banking platform, YONO 2.0, with an ambitious target of doubling its user base to 20 crore customers in the next two years.

Speaking to PTI, SBI Chairman CS Setty said that YONO 2.0 is a major technology upgrade aimed at delivering a significantly better customer experience while acting as a strong digital backbone for India’s largest public sector bank.

Currently, SBI has close to 10 crore users on its YONO platform. With SBI YONO 2.0, the bank wants to bring both mobile banking and internet banking users together, building a combined digital customer base of 20 crore.

“From a bank perspective, SBI YONO 2.0 is a key anchor of digitalisation, with a common code for internet banking and mobile banking. This allows seamless integration across channels and faster launch of new products,” Setty said.

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What’s New in SBI YONO 2.0?

According to CS Setty, SBI YONO 2.0 has been built on a common core for customer journeys, ensuring a seamless experience across:

• Mobile banking
• Internet banking
• Branch banking channels

Services like account opening, transactions, and product onboarding will now follow a unified digital journey. However, the full-fledged features of YONO 2.0 will be rolled out gradually over the next 6–8 months.

To support this scale, SBI is making significant investments in digital infrastructure, which is essential for handling such a massive user base.

Bigger Digital Push by Government Banks

The SBI YONO 2.0 launch clearly reflects a broader trend where government banks are aggressively pushing digital banking services. The objective is clear:

• Reduce footfall in branches
• Promote digital passbooks and digital FDs
• Enable PDF FD receipts
• Push digitally processed and disbursed loans
• Cut fixed costs like employee salaries
• Improve profit margins through automation

On paper, this looks like a perfect digital banking roadmap.

The Sad Reality of Government Bank Apps

But ground reality paints a very different picture.

In these fast-progressing times, many government bank apps simply stop working at night. After 11 PM, services start shutting down, and by 11:30 PM to midnight, some banking applications become completely non-functional.

We tested a few government bank mobile banking apps over three months, and the results were frankly pathetic. We do not want to take names but, this is a Sad Reality.

This raises serious questions:

• Is this the New India digital banking system?
• When NEFT and RTGS are officially 24×7, why can’t customers use them due to app downtime?
• Why are banks not penalized for their app downtime?
• Is Digital Banking is being pushed without sufficient banking infrastructure for the same?
• Should customers be “digital” only during banking hours?

If SBI YONO 2.0 and similar platforms are the future, then reliability, uptime, and night-time availability must be non-negotiable.

The Big Question

Digital banking is not just about flashy upgrades or ambitious user targets. It’s about trust, availability, and performance.

As SBI targets 20 crore YONO users with YONO 2.0, the real challenge will be answering one simple question:

Where is India’s digital banking system actually going?