Lending

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/06/Artboard-1-copy-10-4.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" id="9psuo4qu8" width="100%" height="284">Around the world, there are billions of people without access to structured and formal lending services. This category also includes those micro, small, and medium enterprises that struggle to stay afloat without timely financing.Fintech has identified these segments to be on the brink of a financial revolution, but there is a tiny hitch. For instance,<a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/digital-lending-open-credit-enablement-network/"> digital lending</a> institutions need to regroup their position on mastering the tech, utilizing data in identifying potential borrowers. Nevertheless, some lenders have made some headway in adopting alternative data models resulting in a cutback of credit losses and doubled application approvals.Post-COVID Credit Assessment for Unbanked SegmentThe impact of lending and borrowing on small and medium businesses and informal segments like single structures, migrant populations &amp; the unbanked segment is now seen as “Too risky.”This scenario gives rise to crucial problem statements that need to be addressed by various players in the formal financial ecosystem as below –<ul class="list-node" id="1e9xn2w3x"><li>Lack of structured and verifiable financial behavior data for MSMEs, small retailers, and even single entrepreneur set-ups</li><li>Physical <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/know-your-customer-kyc-the-need-for-authentication/">KYC</a> verification challenges, especially if the borrower's name details, address, or any other criteria are mismatched against available sources</li><li>The financial inability of MSMEs to service and repay existing Loans (in effect) to avail any of the fresh or emergency credit</li><li>The prevalence of manual processes in risks and credit assessment of lenders and banks increases the chances of fraud, errors, omission, loan data exception, and oversight</li><li>Specifically, in the current scenario, as COVID 19 can be classified as an “ACT OF GOD,” this presents a rare loop-hole challenge for existing borrower data to be improperly / insufficiently benchmarked against existing lending product standards</li><li>One of the most ignored segments is the unbanked and under-banked segment (who can be classified as without an active bank account or a transaction presence for a minimum of 6 months)</li></ul>Credit Assessment Opportunities — Ecosystem Participation<ul class="list-node" id="zp19xq2a4"><li>Alternate scoring entities and solution providers need to capture and capitalize individual data through Telecom, Utilities, Taxation &amp; GST, Payments, E-commerce, and Location data</li><li><a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/account-aggregator-101-democratizing-data-access-and-sharing/">Account aggregators</a> will be a qualitative and quantitative complement disruptor for the credit assessment and provide holistic financial behavior data across participating Financial Information Providers (FIPs) and Financial Information Users (FIUs)</li><li>Credit repair entities will have an essential role in ensuring the impacted segments have access and transparent understanding to repair appropriate credit damage due to COVID</li></ul>So far, these pioneering efforts have sparked the unbanked credit assessment. They have brought forth massive opportunities for the sector, and the future looks promising.Want to know more about enabling digital credit? Then write to us at <a class="link" href="mailto:business@m2pfintech.com">business@m2pfintech.com</a><a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights, directly to your inbox. Follow us on&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a>&nbsp;for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.

Credit Risk Model for Unbanked: Last-Mile Lending Enablement

<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/05/Artboard-1-copy-8-19.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" width="100%" height="284">Lending is a complex world where loan origination to disbursal is a sea of procedures. It involves tremendous efforts, time, and logistical investments from the loan seeker. Right from <a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/blog/know-your-customer-kyc-the-need-for-authentication/">KYC</a> verification to document submission, loan application form &amp; user-setup, account mandates, amount sanction, and disbursement, end-use monitoring &amp; EMI/Principal collection, the entire life cycle of the loan is mostly offline.It paves the way for many instances of fraud/mis-governance, data input error, transaction failures, other issues, and loan closure inconsistencies. It also prevents many from seeking credit as they are wary of these cumbersome procedures.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/06/Artboard-1-copy-13.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" id="jrpp3783x" width="100%" height="284"><h2 class="heading-node" id="25a0">Short story:</h2>Sunil is an MSME entrepreneur, residing in a semi-urban area called Bandipur. He ran a profitable electronic shop before being railroaded by the pandemic. The business faced a looming loss and a climbing expense due to strict lockdown measures. Since most of the lenders were in the urban or metropolitan cities, he had limited credit options.In fact, from March 2020, Sunil was finding ways to avail credit. He had made endless negotiations with lenders available, expecting a reasonable rate and term. It was a fruitless quest; Sunil had to get a loan from a lender named Roy Chatterjee, at very high interest. He completed all the steps from risk assessment, KYC verification, credit assessment, loan disbursement, and collection offline.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/06/Artboard-1-copy-9-1.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" id="cs0vgyg4f" width="100%" height="284">In the process, Sunil discovered that having minimal or almost no digital facility in the loan application method had given him a suboptimal output. The lending life cycle was complex and filled with data input errors, transaction failures, and loan closure inconsistencies.He also arrived at the conclusions that:<ul class="list-node" id="anlqtu1sw"><li>The absence of data yielded him risky credit allocation and disbursement</li><li>Secondly, the lack of digital infrastructure led to increased inconvenience</li></ul>Owing to a lack of repayment data, the lender misleadingly showed several months of missed collection and charged more than the actual amount. So, Sunil ultimately had to shut down his business and sell his assets for loan closure.<blockquote class="block-node" id="cdewdrpee">What would have saved Sunil’s business?The availability of competitive&nbsp;Digital Credit or Lending Solutions&nbsp;from various lenders could have given Sunil the right credit options.Sunil’s dilemma is an example of the current MSME situation in India. The MSMEs are referred to as the&nbsp;Lost Middle&nbsp;as their needs are not addressed. Their distinct requirements fall between microcredit organizations like Micro-Finance Institutions (MFINs) and banks, thereby making them prey to secondary lending agencies who charge exorbitant interest rates and sometimes deceive. And that’s where platforms like OCEN comes in as a helping hand.</blockquote><img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/06/Artboard-1-copy-10-1.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" id="p47fcaqn0" width="100%" height="284">OCEN stands for Open Credit Enablement Network. It aims to promote transparent loan origination and participation from categories of Education, e-commerce, Payment Aggregators, Fintechs, and NBFCs. This platform is designed to serve even niche customers or borrowers like Sunil.<h2 class="heading-node" id="6eff">OCEN- A premise</h2>Fundamentally, OCEN is the brainchild of iSpirt, Sahamati, and Credall. It is a digital lending solution that provides credit to customers having a credit history and provides micro-credit opportunities to people with no credit or bank transaction history. In short, the platform aims to improve and enable credit access to everyone.<h2 class="heading-node" id="58af">So, what does OCEN do?</h2>Generally, it targets to serve all possible borrower categories like personal, home loan, and business. Furthermore, it offers a marketplace model for loan offerings.OCEN aims to resolve the major problems by emphasizing Digital-Only assessment, sanction, and disbursement of loans to borrowers. It supports borrower and lender usage monitoring, thereby ensuring a 360° data collection and analysis.Digital lending can prevent mis-governance or fraudulent loan practices by both the parties — loan seeker and loan provider.<h2 class="heading-node" id="c81c">OCEN — The Ultimate Platform for MSMEs</h2>OCEN is best suitable for MSMEs because its open protocols will ignite further innovation at each step of the loan process. Furthermore, it will help to democratize credit.&nbsp;It can even ensure that every service provider offers credit by just plugging into the platform.<img src="https://m2p-website-file.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/m2p-website-file/marketing-cms/m2p-blog/2022/06/Artboard-1-copy-11.webp" alt="M2P Fintech" title="" id="97zo19bd8" width="100%" height="284"><h2 class="heading-node" id="2ff3">Will OCEN solves the struggle of MSMEs?</h2>Yes. It can rapidly increase credit availability to enterprises that are already digitized to a greater extent. For other MSMEs that operate in a minimum data zone or with a low digital base, lenders need to utilize the physical and digital infrastructure and channels. Simply put, overcoming data errors or discrepancies for companies with a minimum digital capability is still an issue to be addressed.<h2 class="heading-node" id="6ff8">The Future Journey of OCEN</h2>OCEN is expecting to terra-form the credit landscape in the coming months and years ahead. It will allow small businesses to avail credit in real-time. Whether its supply chain finance for broad/long term or instant-short term credit or any other trade-specific condition, you could anticipate a sea-change transformation in the more extensive credit process.The next visible step in OCEN — is the significance and authorization of Loan Service Providers (LSP) categories. Finally, the rationale behind the digitalization of lending and the Open Credit Enablement Network is to make “Credit for Everyone”&nbsp;a reality.<a class="link" href="https://m2pfintech.com/newsletter/">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to our newsletter and get the latest fintech news, views, and insights, directly to your inbox. Follow us on&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/m2pfintech/mycompany/">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="link" href="https://twitter.com/m2pfintech">Twitter</a>&nbsp;for insightful fintech tales curated for curious minds like you.Author- <a class="link au nn" href="https://medium.com/@abhishek.mody" rel="noopener">Abhishek Mody</a>