SMEs benefit from digital lending

The Asian Age.

Business, In Other News

It is estimated that the credit gap for SMEs is $370 billion.

The loans requirement in India is estimated to be $ 1.5 trillion by 2020 and it is growing by 18 per cent CAGR.

Mumbai: The move towards digitalisation, specially of  banks and NBFCs is  faster than what the professed objective of demonetisation by the government, namely  ferreting out  black money and corruption.

Manavjeet Singh, CEO & founder, Rubique, an online platform that leverages technology to provide solutions to the financing needs of individuals and SMEs, says: “when we started out for six months we were struggling with nothing happening. After demonetisation, in December, 13 financial institutions came to us with 35 products and many FIs are setting up digital lending teams in-house. It has till date  issued 26,000  credit cards through 65 financial institutions, generating revenue of Rs 17.5 crore.”

It is estimated that the credit gap for SMEs is $370 billion. The loans requirement in India is estimated to be $ 1.5 trillion by 2020 and it is growing by 18 per cent CAGR. Mr. Singh says the demonetisation of the currency has led to a decrease in the primary purchase of the assets and hence the loans attached to them have seen some downtrends, but is a temporary phenomena expected in  a transitional phase from a cash economy to digital economy.

He expects credit demand for home loans to pick up by the end of January when the economy stabilises as most of them deferred their buying till stability set in.

Historically the last quarter has always seen 40 per cent of disbursements happening.

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