State Bank of India said it is redeploying branch staff into sales and upselling roles as more banking transactions move to digital channels, signalling how customer behaviour is changing across the country's largest lender.
"A large number of transactions have moved to alternate channels. We are redeploying some of the workforce into sales and training our workforce in the branches for upselling," Chairman CS Setty said during the bank's post-results earnings call earlier this month.
The comments underscores how digital banking is changing the role of physical branches in India. SBI said more customers are opening accounts online, using mobile banking platforms and buying multiple financial products through the bank's ecosystem instead of visiting branches for routine transactions.
The lender said 66% of new savings accounts in FY26 originated through Yono, SBI's digital banking platform. The bank added that Yono crossed four crore registrations within three months of the launch of its new version, taking its total user base to around 10 crore customers.
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Changing Branch Roles
SBI said the shift to digital banking is allowing it to redeploy employees towards customer acquisition and cross-selling financial products.
Setty said customers now use more services from the bank beyond deposits and loans. "There are customers who tell me that they take about eight to 10 different products from SBI," he said during the interaction.
He added that the bank currently sees around three products per customer on average and wants to raise that number to five over time. SBI executives said the bank is also tracking customer engagement at district and branch levels as it looks to expand market share and increase product penetration.
The bank said transaction banking products, current accounts, mutual funds, insurance and lending products are becoming part of a wider relationship-driven model.
Digital Shift
Setty said SBI is focusing on simplifying operations and improving customer journeys as banking activity increasingly shifts online. "We are simplifying the bank at scale through Project Saral," he said in his opening remarks, referring to the lender's process re-engineering initiative.
He said the initiative aims to "simplify the customer journey and release capacity within the system to focus more on relationship building and business growth."
SBI said it continues to expand digital adoption while reshaping how its branch network operates as customer expectations change.
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