India’s largest lender State Bank of India has announced it launching a video-based KYC (know your customer) savings account opening feature on its mobile banking app, Yono.

This move is powered by artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology. The main purpose is to introduce a contactless and paperless process, states the bank in a release.

In a release, Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI says, "This is a step ahead to ensure customers' safety, financial security and cost-effectiveness. We believe this initiative will add a new dimension to mobile banking and empower customers to go digital for their banking needs.”

However, the feature would be available to customers planning to open a new savings account with the lender. To utilize this new facility, a person needs to download Yono (You Only Need One) App, click on 'New to SBI', and select 'Insta Plus Savings Account'.
User will have to enter their Aadhaar details in the app, and once the Aadhaar authentication is complete, they may have to input personal details and schedule a video call to complete the KYC process.

On successful completion of video KYC, the account would be automatically opened, the bank said. Launched in November 2017, Yono has more than 37 million registered users.

The bank has also associated with more than 100 e-commerce players in more than 20 plus categories on the Yono platform.