From left: Adhil Shetty, Founder & CEO, Bankbazaar; Satish Mehta, Co-Founder and Director, Credexpert; Saikat Sarkar, Country Risk Manager - India Consumer Business, Citibank N.A.; Narayan Krishnamurthy, Editor, Outlook Money; Manish Sinha, India Country Leader, Equifax; Eknath Pai Kasturi, COO, Access Matrix
At a time when one is inundated with calls and messages soliciting quick loans and credit cards, the session on online credit was an apt one to deliberate about building a robust ecosystem. Saikat Sarkar, Country Risk Manager-India Consumer Business, Citibank, fired the opening salvo by sharing his views on different components of the credit ecosystem where he felt it was important to focus on keeping the customer at the centre. No doubt that every customer’s credit profile and repaying capability were important, but more important than that is to know the customer as part of the KYC requirement.
Manish Sinha, India Country Leader, Equifax Credit Information Services, spoke about the changing scenario of scrutinising prospective customers. The role of social media to understand and analyse credit seekers is emerging to be a strong factor, which could play a significant role. According to him there was plenty of food for thought about using social credit scores, where lenders could scan the LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles of credit seekers to analyse their mindset.
2. Vineet Arora interacting with Indranil Roy 3. A member of the audience interacts with the panelists
The industry’s challenge remains to be one of safety and at the same time risks involved when lending. Satish Mehta, Co-Founder and Director, Credexpert, Athena Partners, had interesting views on how price differentiation by way of lending at a lower rate to those with a strong repayment history could be the next big thing. The fact that loans are being processed faster is increasing consumer an expectation was mentioned by Eknath Pai Kasturi, COO, Access Matrix Technologies. He felt that giving customers conditional approval on the loan status should become priority, especially in case of secured loans.
Adhil Shetty, Founder and CEO, Bankbazaar, shared his experience on using credit scores and how his platform is actually doing the job of matching customers with lenders in the best interests of both the parties. The session ended on the note of concurrence that technology was allowing the credit ecosystem to be robust, but it also allowed fraudsters to be a step ahead, something inevitable in the digital era.
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