Largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI) launched YONO Cash, under its digital banking platform YONO, for cardless cash withdrawal at over 16,500 SBI ATMs across the country.

The launch is a first by a bank to offer this service. The ATMs, where this facility is available, will be termed as YONO Cash Point.

"The initiative will address their concern of using the debit card at the ATMs for cash withdrawals by eliminating possible risk associated with it. This feature on YONO is designed to help its users withdraw cash without a physical debit card," Rajnish Kumar, chairman of SBI, said in a statement.

The SBI customers can initiate the request for the cardless cash withdrawal from their YONO app and set a six-digit YONO Cash pin for the transaction. They will receive a six-digit reference number for the transaction on their registered mobile number via SMS. The cash withdrawal has to be completed within the next 30 minutes using both PIN and the reference number received.

Digital banking platforms are offered by many top banks. However, most are yet to come out with the feature of cardless cash withdrawals. According to report, titled 'Digital Payments' by BCG and Google, India has over a billion mobile phone connections and the smartphone user base is expected to grow to 520 million users by 2020, making it a potential customer-base for the finance companies to tap.