The only sustainable way we can get to 5 trillion is if the bottom 600 billion Indians are part of the process: Dr. D Subbarao

With an aim of democratizing credit, Lentra unveiled its Lending Cloud at Digital Lending Transformation Global Summit 2022
Mumbai, July 29, 2022: Speaking at the first edition of Lentra Digital Lending Transformation Global Summit 2022 today in Mumbai, the former Finance Secretary and RBI Governor, Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao emphasized the crucial role of technology related policy initiatives in building a robust financial ecosystem for effectively catering to the credit needs of our growing economy.

“The next revolution in finance will be driven by technology oriented policies, such as the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number), digital infrastructure as a public good, interoperability across all sectors, emphasis on consumer protection, and most importantly the closing of gender gap.”

However, as access to credit still remains a challenge, technology will help widen the reach “The only sustainable way we can get to 5 trillion and beyond is if the bottom 600 billion people are part of the process. Microfinance loans that help low income households regularize their income stream are expensive to process because of the small ticket size and higher transaction cost. Technology will make it possible to cut down costs till the mile, customize credit and reach the customer at lower cost,” he added

Highlighting the new age of digital lenders and emphasizing the significance of digital innovation in fostering inclusive growth for the financial industry, Praveena Rai, COO, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said, “We have moved from a situation where a large swath of people did not have access to credit. Today, the confidence of people is building up in the financial system. And a large part fo this is driven by technology and a well structured set of assisted services. It is also the magic of business correspondence, bank withdraw Customer Service agents, development of bank, branches, all of that coming together.”

Organized by Lentra, one of the fastest growing digital lending cloud platforms, the event aimed at addressing the demand-supply gap for credit in the country. The transformation summit also underscored the need for inclusive growth and collaborative strategies between banks, new age tech enterprises, the Government, and regulators.

To further brace the credit needs of India’s growing economy and empower traditional banking players to access newer lending models, Lentra unveiled its Lending Cloud. With more than 250 API integrations on the platform across loan verification, processing, credit underwriting, decision making, disbursement, and loan servicing, Lentra will support partner banks to achieve higher Straight-Through Processing (STP). This will also help make loans accessible to customers within minutes.

Talking about the unveiling of Lentra Lending Cloud, Ankur Handa, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer, Lentra said “Today customers are looking for instant loans at the touch of a button. This makes it necessary for banks and financial institutions to considerably reduce customer acquisition and onboarding time, and delight customers with instant credit experience and point of sale decisions.  Lentra’s intelligent, domain-native platform is built from the ground up, designed and developed to empower financial institutions with tomorrow’s lending ecosystem today.”

The cloud platform has handled a peak of 1038 API calls/second, handling over 6 applications per second during the festive season of October-November 2021. Lentra, which is a partner to over 50+ Banks and NBFCs, disbursed a cumulative Rs.650 cr in loans across 1 million applications during Diwali last year.

The congregation witnessed participation from a variety of leading industry stalwarts, including Parag Rao, Country Head – Payments, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking and Technology, HDFC Bank; Asheesh Pandey, Executive Director, Bank of Maharashtra; Rajeev Ahuja, Executive Director, RBL Bank; Mehernosh Tata, CEO, Edelweiss Retail Finance; Rakesh Singh, MD and CEO, Aditya Birla Finance; Gaurav Gupta, MD and CEO, Adani Capital & MD, Adani Housing; Aseem Dhru, MD and CEO, SBFC Finance; and Sachin Chaudhary, Chief Operating Officer, Indiabulls Housing Finance, among others.

The conference also included discussions around credit risks, lending in Web 3.0, open APIs, lending distribution networks, and a host of other conversations around personal loan, home loans, and auto and two wheeler loans.