THE FUTURE OF LENDINGINFORMATION (NOT PHYSICAL) COLLATERAL

Skip tracing, signals of stress, and behaviour patterns to improve loan collections! These are just a few ways in which technology can help lenders.

Abhishek Sharma, Chief Digital Officer, L&T Finance unpacks how investing in paperless loan on-boarding, loan servicing, AI-driven underwriting, AI credit scores, and other areas can be a wise and profitable bet for both the company and its customers.

And how alternate data sources, uPI and ONDC will redefine lending in the new age.

Has the role of technology changed significantly during and after the pandemic—in your industry, and at l&T finance?

During the pandemic, not just in the BFSI industry, but across all industries, the business models which could adapt themselves to minimise/eliminate the need for face-to-face interaction succeeded in ensuring business continuity. This led to faster adoption of new technology.

In the lending industry, the pandemic necessitated minimising customers’ branch visits through online servicing of requests, minimising staff visits to customer’s premises through submission of digital documents and evolution of paperless processes, replacing physical signature requirements with OTP-based authorisation, innovative ways of KYC within a regulatory framework such as video KYC, selfie match, etc.

In the post-pandemic era, lenders have realised that these technology-led improved processes are the new normal for doing business, as they offer a number of advantages to the lenders as well as customers such as operational flexibility, lower cost, reduced processing time, reduction in manual errors, reduction in usage of paper, etc.

While the role of technology has always been to complement human efforts, I think the pandemic has prompted us to embrace the technology faster.