SBI to shut down mobile wallet "SBI Buddy"

SBI to shut down mobile wallet “SBI Buddy”

The State Bank of India (SBI) has begun shutting down its mobile wallet SBI Buddy. In a communication to its customers, India’s leading lenders said that it has decided to continue the wallet. The accounts with nil balance are already being shut down, while it is not clear how and when accounts with balance will be closed. SBI will shut down SBI Buddy on November 30, the official website has notified.

SBI Buddy was launched in August 2015 in 13 languages with MasterCard as service providers and Accenture as a technology partner. At year-end in 2017, SBI had 12.505 million registered wallet users. While SBI Buddy is being shut down, the leading bank has launched an integrated digital banking platform — SBI Yono.

SBI launched SBI YONO across the country with the aim to “offer next-generation banking services to India’s growing mobile phone and tech-savvy customer base”. It recently signed a pact with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio to increase consumer engagement.

SBI said that its YONO (You Only Need One) app accounted for 38% of total SBI bank accounts opened during Q2FY19. YOYO accounts were opened at the rate of around 20,000 per day, peaking on September 27th at 31,000. Just for context, a couple of years ago, this was below the 10,000 per day mark. Around 61% of YONO customers are in the 18-30 year age bracket. The YONO app enables the opening of digital and Insta bank accounts.