Digital lending becoming increasingly popular: Dinesh Kumar Khara, Former Chairperson, SBI at the Global Fintech Fest 2024

Bengaluru, August 29, 2024:  Dinesh Kumar Khara, the recently retired Chairperson, State Bank of India said that digital lending was becoming increasingly popular when asked if legacy banks were adapting fast enough, during a special address on ‘The Evolution of Banking – Past, Present and Future’ on the second day of the Global Fintech Fest 2024.
 
Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024 is presented by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). The conference is jointly organised by the Payments Council of India (PCI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC).

Talking about SBI’s YONO app, Khara, said, “YONO has 80 million registered users today. Almost, 10 million users login each day. So, in many respects it would be a record of sorts across the globe. We had envisaged YONO only as a retail solution and initially it was thought to replace internet banking but when we launched it, we thought that it should be much more than that. It serves all banking and financial needs today. Last year YONO generated 1.7 billion worth of loans. It has gone beyond the boundaries to various global destinations. We’re working on YONO 2.0 where it should be made more modular and faster in terms of processing.”

“SBI serves 50 crore customers today, which is almost 1/3rd of the country’s population and when we serve them, we have to take care of all kinds of customers and their preferences,” He added.
Talking about the risks in banking today, he said, “Mistakes are committed in the good times. Risk is always to be kept in mind for a banker. People tend to ignore the risk but it shouldn’t happen. The system has strengthened in terms of infrastructure. Adequate assessment of the income flows can avoid unsecured lending.”

Speaking about significant banking reforms that had a profound impact on innovation, Khara shared a timeline of the evolution of banking, which began in the first decade of the 19th century with The Imperial Bank of India to SBI later.

Around 800 speakers, including policymakers, regulators, senior bankers, industry captains, and academicians, from India and various other countries are addressing more than 350 sessions over three days of the conference. Delegates are participating from over 70 countries, besides India.