MC EXCLUSIVE SBI converging all payments system under one umbrella, says chairman CS Setty

CS Setty, SBI Chairman

State Bank of India chairman CS Setty has identified retail, wealth management and transaction banking as three critical areas for the country’s largest lender apart from corporate banking. It is the third area — transaction banking — that is being looked at with renewed focus, he said.

“We are probably the dominant player in the retail and are building the blocks. We have large landscape of wealth qualifying customers. On transaction banking, while we built lot of payment application inside the bank as well as outside, through a subsidiary, we did not bring the kind of convergence which is required,” he told Moneycontrol in an interview.

SBI is in the process of building all the payment systems under one umbrella.

“While SBI Payments, as a subsidiary, will continue to provide the heft which is required to be provided outside the bank, within the bank, we have almost half a dozen payment assets which we have not spent as much,” Setty said. These include propositions such as cash management solution, fast tag and payment solution.

SBI distinguishes itself in the digital landscape as the only Indian bank to own a payment gateway rather than relying on third-party providers.

“All these payment assets can be a very profitable assets in themselves. We are structuring our integrated payment mechanism, so that everything in the payment space will work under one umbrella,” Setty said. “I think this is value accretive”.

What he aspires to achieve in the process is a sustainable stream of other income from the banking channel operations.

“From April 1 (2026) onwards, both on the business side and the technology side, there will be one single unit which will be managing the payments, apart from what we have outside the bank which will continue to be there”.

The focus on the payments and transaction platform follows success of YONO, the bank’s mobile application, which got an upgrade on December 15.

Setty said YONO 2.0 is a reimagined and redeveloped digital asset. “We are proud of the efforts of several months which have gone into it, and people have put their heart into it. I must compliment my teams for that,” the chairman said.

Setty is confident that at least 50 percent of SBI’s customer base will eventually move to the app. “With the multilingual capability, we make it a little more accessible to people and what we are trying to do is that there is a natural traction for this application,” he said.

Setty is also aware that not all his customers or people who walk into SBI’s branches may be savvy enough to get on to the app.

The bank has identified 10,000 branches, predominantly those with high footfall, and deployed floor managers to assist customers with YONO.

“The design features are very intuitive, and it is a reflection of what kind of diversity we have in the customer base,” Setty said.

SBI caters to those falling in the financial inclusion category, which is about 100-150 million customers and then at the top-end, serves ultra-high net worth individuals.

“We have 100 more journeys to be built into it YONO”. “We call it YONOnisation,” the chairman said, as simplification of process is what YONO has done to SBI and that’s a learning which the bank wants to spread.

Setty said YONO and SBI are mutually reinforcing assets. “Some of these elements are replicable across the banking industry. Some of them can be monetised and we will definitely do that but YONO as a property is inseparable from SBI,” he said, clarify listing YONO is not on the anvil.