Roughly 10 years ago, Spice Money, an Indian rural financial services company, offered just one service—digital train ticket booking on the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) portal. Over the next five years, the company, a fully owned subsidiary of DiGiSPICE Technologies, rolled out digital payment options for tour and travel bookings, utility bill payments, insurance, cash withdrawal and direct money transfers. But for the past three years, the company has focused its attention on small-ticket loans. It has tied up with third-party lenders and has now queued up for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence.
The queue for NBFC licences keeps getting longer. Hordes of fintech start-ups are lining up at the doors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to obtain licences that allow them to give loans on their own books. In the queue are micro-saving platforms, payments firms and stock broking companies. For India’s fintech sector, loans seem to be a sure-fire way to profitability.
Loan Route to Success
Many fintech start-ups originating in non-lending verticals have sought to move to lending verticals over the past few years. Walmart-owned PhonePe has been lending to 3.9 crore merchants in partnerships with NBFCs and banks since May 2023. Two months into the lending business, PhonePe achieved an annualised disbursal run rate of ₹1,000 crore and disbursed more than 20,000 loans through its NBFC partners. A month before venturing into the loans business, PhonePe chief executive Sameer Nigam was quoted saying the company may consider applying for an NBFC licence at some point.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2024 من Outlook Business.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2024 من Outlook Business.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Coalition Karma
In the winter of 2011, the world watched as international crude prices surged amid the chill of economic uncertainty, casting a shadow of concern over the global economy.
MARKET MAVERICK
For FCB Group India CEO Dheeraj Sinha, music makes life easier, and writing is the best way to get clarity of thinking
AN INSIDE STORY OF THE BANKERS' BANK
Reserve Bank of India is not perfect. It has room for improvement. Alpana Killawala, who handled RBI's communication for over 26 years, uncovers insider facts about the central bank and its governors, from S. Venkitaramanan to Raghuram Rajan, drawn from her extensive experience as the communication officer
THE GAMES WE PLAY
For the youngest and most populous nation in the world, India's sporting achievements leave much to be desired. Things are changing, but they need to change way more quickly
Realty Gets a Luxe Push
A post-Covid rebound in the economy and NRIs are pushing the sale of luxury properties in metros as well as smaller cities
Backroom Revolution
Availability of skilled talent pool along with competitive costs have made India a major attraction for MNCs to set up their support centres, commonly known as GCCs
'GOOD GOVERNANCE IS THE CORNERSTONE OF GOOD BUSINESS'
Shikha Hora Kamdar, head, retail assets & ESG, IDFC FIRST Bank, talks about how the bank is integrating sustainability in its operations
PRASAR BHARATI STRIKES BACK
As smartphones take over TV as the primary source of entertainment in India, the national broadcaster is planning a comeback
NBFC LICENCE, PLEASE
Fintech firms are queueing up outside RBI’s office seeking NBFC licences as they see loans as a sure-fire way to profitability. But things are not as easy as they seem.
WALKING A TIGHTROPE
Cybercriminals are taking over vast parts of India's increasingly digitalised financial markets. The SEBI wants to act, but it cannot afford to spook rookie retail investors
