Key to Lending Growth - Speed & Scalability
The transformation that is happening in the lending space is enormous. Rajesh Krishnia, Head of Enterprise BFSI at Nutanix India, and D. Venkatesh, Director, Lentra AI, explain the nuances:
Babu Nair: What can banks do to reduce the turnaround time for proposals? What are the business opportunities in this?
D. Venkatesh: eKYC has been a game-changer. With the adoption of such initiatives, there has been a paradigm shift in running the lending business. Lending has moved from branch to online. Banks, due to lack of technology, are lagging behind in fulfilling business needs. We are empowering them with the right tools to cope with the demands.
Credit off-take has been hit during the pandemic. How can technology help banks?
Venkatesh: Our tools help to collate data and allow the banks to decide on further steps that will have to be taken. The product’s name is ‘GoNoGo’, and we believe that it helps banks to make faster decisions on loan approvals. The speed at which the data is collected from various sources and presented will change the way business will be run in the future.
The foundation must be compliancedriven, secure and must perform in realtime. What is the technical support that is being given to lenders to reduce uptime?
Raj e s h Kri s h n i a : T h e b a n k ’s application would work on a 3-tier architecture. Nutanix has brought in a new platform. We have tried to converge various storage and network aspects of banking. It is scalable and completely configurable. The availability of the data to the various tools makes it even more user-friendly. It is fully compliant with RBI regulations.
There are multiple applications running on multiple clouds. How do you ensure the governance of such platforms?
Rajesh: Hybrid clouds will be adopted in the future. We are helping clients with customer use cases. We are trying to move existing applications of clients to the cloud without disrupting their business.
Most o f the demands are in the realm of WFH and how the employees’ work experience can be made smoother. S e c u r i t y a nd compliance are built at the first level so that it becomes easier to move to cloud computing from the mainframe.
What technology paradigms will create further efficiency in lending?
Venkatesh: We enable the firms with tools that can aggregate the data and help run the business. The platform offers digital-first solutions.
RBI is proactive in reducing the NPAs. What has been the role of technology in this?
Venkatesh: Early warning systems can be implemented in a 2-pronged approach. The first will be to review the portfolio. The best approach will be at the origination point. The data collected by our tools from various sources give a clear picture to the business rule engine. It can be further enriched by other ecosystems. We have found that under 1% of the cases had flaws and needed intervention.
Open APIs are making inroads in BFSIs. What is the best way to integrate different APIs?
Ve n k a t e s h : The traditional lending system was very rigid. Now the government is opening the data portal for anyone to access the data; it is a gamechanger. The new lending system allows banks to connect to outside systems. We are allowing the banks to choose the APIs which best suit their business. One of the revolutionary API-led frameworks initiated by the government is OCEN.
How can banks aggregate the lending with the help of fintechs?
What are the challenges while working in an open API environment?
This is going to reach the gram panchayat level. This will allow the village-level entrepreneurs to get discounts and loans without any physical intervention.
Venkatesh: Fintechs create niche products. We are dealing with both fintechs and techfin. We try to provide solutions to the banks using our collaborations. We have over 300 ready-to-use integrations. So, solutions are already there for the customers to choose from.
Rajesh: Our products are API-driven. We want to remain invisible in the whole process. The customers are wanting to modernize the applications.
What are the technologies which are yet to be seen in the lending space?
Venkatesh: Credit off-take is going to grow. SEHMATI is a framework that is coming up for lending. This will allow investigation of the accounts of the person and also credit bureau for any defaults. This means good customers will get loans at cheaper rates of interest, and bad customers will not be able to hide. All the banks are doing away with paperwork.
What will be the world of lending look like post covid?
Venkatesh: There is going to be strong growth once the world reopens. The lenders are going to see increases in loans. There will be all types of lenders.