The lending landscape is witnessing a paradigm shift towards digitization and automation. Yet, most borrowers/ prospective applicants aver that the process is cumbersome and never without a hassle.

Prashanth Ranganathan, Chief Executive Officer, PayU Finance begs to differ. He says the company has initiated digitisation of the loan disbursement process end-to-end, made it contactless, cost-effective and easy and above all, is aiming to disburse the loan in less than an hour once the eKYC is complete.

“We have taken the advances in technology and systems to create the process. The advancements are specifically in three areas – automation (which could be in the form of OCR (Optical Character Recognition)), eliminating courier by figuring constructs to have the customer clickwrap and sign the application, and checking on NACH (National Automated Clearing House) mandate or standing instruction. We implemented eNACH in fintech and NBFCs. We are now in the process of developing our own chatbot,” Ranganathan explained.

The company’s integrated digital KYC (Aadhaar XML and cKYC) and eNACH features coupled with clickwrap-based OTP digital signatures would support 70 per cent of users in the next three months. This would be supported by leveraging alternate data for robust underwriting, he added.

He indicated that the company would not be aggressive in acquiring new customers. “It’s a lot easier to lend to our existing customers, particularly those that have a good track record. In times such as the present, it would be hard to lend to new people that are new to credit.”

“Prior to lockdown, we used to receive 5 lakh applications every month for personal loan products and 1.10 cr request for credit per day on the buy now pay later products. There was a 30 to 40 per cent dip in buy now pay later request during the initial weeks of the lockdown. This is now seeing signs of pick up. We expect the demand for personal loan products to pick up in the coming days,” he said in reply to a query.

Stating that the company would be taking a fine-tooth comb, be a bit more careful in the coming days, Ranganathan said “we operate in two models - we are an NBFC and probably one of the better capitalized company. We are also a co-lender, work with the likes of investors like Northern Arc, IndiaInfoLine. They are also going through their semantic approach of how to bring back lending.

“The way forward is going to be lot more digital. We are co-creating a product with our customers; this is expected to be rolled out in the next two months.”

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