Efficient Lending Business Trends
Sheetal Mayekar, CMO, Rubique
Technology has brought transformation in the customer mindset; the millennial customers are not much concerned about the brand. Today’s customer wants everything to be digital, so companies need to keep the platform ready to serve the needs of the customers. The customers want faster, simple and convenient technology. The loan process is very complex in India compared to the European countries, where there is digital infrastructure and we in India do not have such an infrastructure. Also, there is no standardization in the industry in terms of evaluation parameters. For example, in case of home loans, different valuators provide different valuation reports making it difficult to ascertain the exact value of the property. Government & NITI Ayog are focusing on making lending process smoother by deploying requisite digital infrastructure and taking various initiatives on this front. Rubique always focused on B2B2C model as India is a influencer driven model; we have deployed technology in the distribution space and we are using analytics for generating the data. Based on this data, we are developing the artificial intelligence which can provide predictive insights for future transactions.
Finding the right talent is a challenge in this industry due to constant evolution of technology and practices in this space. Marriage between financial services industry and technology is very important.
In any product development the first and foremost thing is to decide who your customer is and what their expectations are. All models in the fintech space available today are different from each other. It is unfair to do any apple to apple comparison. Hence there is no readymade talent available for the companies.
There are multiple institutes which are introducing fintech courses but they are struggling with them. Fintech companies require talent across its functions like technology, product, strategic partnerships, marketing etc. For example, a team working for data partnerships needs to think out of the box and come with possible alliance opportunities in the existing eco-system.
The opportunities in lending is huge and recently, we have witnessed companies like Flipkart, Ola and Oyo applying for NBFC licence.
Ravinder Pal Singh, Director - Business Development, Dell EMC India
In the initial days, trust and personal relation played important role for banks in connecting with customers. Technology is still in its early stage for the industry in India; gradually customer trust will be established on technology. Nowadays, people believe more on technology compared to relationships.
India doesn’t have comprehensive data regulation laws; the IT Act has only 2 sections. When GDPR came out, everyone has started realizing that India should create data protection law. There are expectations from the new government that they will make data protection law effective for the companies. The new law will fill up lots of gaps, in terms of data security and data privacy.
Indian global companies and international companies are taking the example of GDPR and are formulating their own policies. There are gaps and these will get filled once new data law comes into existence. Customers feel safe and secure in dealing with the public sector banks compared to private banks.
The customer trust level has increased on technology, and it is helping customers and the vendors to be more effective in their operations and relationships. Customer relationships will continue to leapfrog with blockchain and other technologies.
Gaurav Anand, CFA, Co-founder, Namaste Credit
We have emerged as a leading fintech in the SME segment. There are 60 large financial institutions that use our lending platform catering to the needs of MSME and SME companies. Namaste Credit has started offering its technology to large financial institutions on a SaaS model. There is a gap between salaried customers/ individuals and SME and MSME companies. Individual salaried customers are exposed to technological breakthroughs.
Companies need to prioritize the end user experience. India is still not a branddriven country and companies service as per the needs of the customers. Many companies have started using AI and ML but these have not reached the final customers. NBFCs are facing quality talent issues, as we are still not the Silicon Valley. These companies need to keep their objective and nurture their talent. The customer experience will also evolve, and the creators of technology will achieve the customer experience.
Origination, under writing and collection are the 3 problems faced by banks and NBFCs in India and they need to find answers to these problems.