Chala Srinivasulu Sethi took over as chairman of State Bank of India, winner of the Best Consumer Bank award, in August last year. It discusses SBI’s digital journey, the trajectory of its consumer banking business, and the challenge posed by artificial intelligence and fintech.
Global Finance: State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest bank, posted strong returns in 2024. How did you achieve this, and can it be replicated?
Chala Srinivasulu City: Our strong performance in fiscal 2025 stems from a disciplined growth strategy, prudent risk management, and leveraging our diversified investment portfolio. We have seen healthy credit growth across the retail, SME and corporate sectors. Importantly, we achieved these returns while improving asset quality, led by strong underwriting and rigorous credit monitoring and recovery efforts. We have balanced the expansion of the loan book with strong, low-cost deposits, ensuring stable margins. This has been supported by the cost efficiencies resulting from digitalization. We are confident that these results are sustainable because they are based on the pillars of consistency, productivity and flexibility. As the Indian economy continues to expand, we see an opportunity for SBI to grow while maintaining our capital position, technological superiority and customer confidence.
GF: What are the latest consumer banking achievements that SBI has achieved in its digital transformation journey?
City: SBI’s digital journey is spearheaded by our flagship You Only Need One (YONO) platform, which offers mobile and branch banking.
YONO has exceeded 90 million registered users, with more than 65% of savings accounts opened and more than 40% of personal loans taken out digitally. We also have 140 million registered users on our retail online banking platform, as well as 7.2 million registrations for WhatsApp banking, which is currently offered in six languages.
This metric demonstrates our success in promoting digital inclusion; We bring millions of customers, from urban millennials to rural users, to digital banking. Initiatives like YONO Business, YONO Global, Video KYC, and end-to-end loan processing are redefining convenience. The next stage is to integrate generative AI for hyper-personalization and predictive engagement, making digital not just a channel but the core of our customers’ experience.
All these efforts underscore the digital transformation journey of SBI. From an organization with a legacy of over 200 years, we have reinvented ourselves as a future-ready, digital-first bank.
GF: How is SBI improving customer experience in consumer banking? What role does artificial intelligence play?
City: Enhancing customer experience is central to everything we do at SBI, driven by an unwavering customer obsession that shapes our decisions and priorities. To improve service quality, we measure customer experience using different metrics and streamline processes to reduce delivery times. Our multi-channel and multi-language approach ensures seamless transactions across platforms.
Using analytics and AI, we are moving towards a proactive approach to customer service rather than just pushing generic offerings as a reactive approach. Branches are being reimagined as advice centers while routine services are being migrated to digital channels. Our mission to be the bank of choice is built on trust and relies on delivering outstanding personalized experiences at every touchpoint.
GF: Where do you see growth in the next year for consumer banking and the geographies served by SBI?
City: Domestically, SBI already has unparalleled reach, but we see significant scope to grow further in consumer banking across the length and breadth of India. Growth in consumer banking will come primarily from proactively meeting people’s evolving needs as middle-income classes grow and businesses expand creating new wealth and redistribution opportunities.
SBI’s retail personal loan book has grown in the range of 11% to 14% in the last few quarters due to strong growth in home loans. Individual credit, especially home and personal loans, will continue to be our growth engine. We are also expanding into semi-urban and rural geographies, supported by financial inclusion initiatives and government schemes.
Internationally, we see potential in markets with large Indian diaspora populations, and digital expansion through the deployment of YONO Global enables us to serve geographies where we do not have a significant physical presence. We are deepening our reach by selling more products to each customer and expanding our reach by entering new markets around the world.
This two-pronged approach gives us confidence that SBI will continue to expand aggressively, both at home and abroad.
