Open Banking
Will OCEN be the UPI of lending?
The problem of universal access to credit seems elusive. The issues are all too familiar. Traditional players like banks and NBFCs still rely on old world methodologies (balance-sheets, collateral) with largely ‘one-size-fits-all’ credit products. These products follow a bank-centric design, and not a borrower-centric design. The fallouts are huge, as this traditional approach results in…
Continue ReadingIndia’s Neobanks
The world of FinTech was already undergoing a transformation, even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The unprecedented lockdown situation only precipitated the transformation. The digital revolution so far has enabled large scale integrations through APIs to enable a range of services to the customer, be it food ordering, ecommerce, or investments. Though the adoption for…
Continue ReadingAccount Aggregators-not quite there yet
2016: RBI approves a new class of non-banking financial companies to function as Account Aggregators (AA) to extract, aggregate, and transfer financial data with the express consent of users. 2019: Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 (PDPB) introduced in the Indian parliament to provide the legal backbone for AAs. 2020: PDPB yet to come into force,…
Continue ReadingThe rise of Embedded Finance
Though embedded finance is gaining headspace today, it is not a new concept. The traction is due to the recent spike in interest shown by venture capitalists, private equity investors and fintech companies. The changing attitude among banking customers, even among the old, who are now willing to look at non-banking finance, added to the…
Continue ReadingThe UPI Revolution
Innovations of yesterday and conveniences of today, and building blocks of more innovations for tomorrow. Today, thanks to the popularization, acceptance, and availability of UPI-based peer-to-peer payments, the world has become a near-cashless place. During the panic-ridden demonetization phase, or during the extraordinary lock-down situation during the Covid-19 pandemic, UPI-based products and services were a…
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