Payments and banking technology company, Cashfree, today announced that its payment solution for lenders, registered a 187% growth during the pandemic induced lockdown period. Launched in March 2020, Cashfree’s Lending suite grew quickly to cross over five million transactions within eight months of its launch. Cashfree has signed on over 300 NBFC and Lending companies this year and expects to clock 1000 businesses by the end of 2021.
Post-pandemic recovery for the Indian economy hinges significantly on easy access to credit. NBFCs are a key component to make credit available. India’s NBFC sector is poised for growth with a recent report by CRISIL Research projecting 15-18% growth from Gold NBFCs alone. According to Cashfree’s data, loan disbursements fell 90% from their peak levels at the start of the year and have recovered to 45% of pre-pandemic levels as of November 2020. Likewise, loan repayments which had dropped by 95%, largely in part due to the loan moratorium by the RBI, have now recovered to 55% of the levels prior to the pandemic induced lockdown.
Cashfree’s Lending suite is used by businesses to facilitate instant loan disbursals from a lender’s bank account via IMPS or UPI, verify a borrower’s bank account and allowing borrowers to authorize lenders to debit their accounts through an automated loan repayment collection system in the form of subscriptions via e-mandate and UPI.
Akash Sinha, CEO & Co-founder of Cashfree, said, “With our lending payments suite, we have tackled the surge in loan requests by speeding up the process of lending and recollection while enhancing the end customer experience. Growing steadily month on month, we saw the highest jump in August when we recorded 187% growth in the GMV in our Lending suite. Our aim has always been to provide flawless experiences and unparalleled services across the board, including lenders, agents, banks and borrowers. We see a lot of potential for the growth of digital payments in the NBFC sector and we are also working directly with lending platforms and banks to bring more efficiency, to both assist the lending business and to strengthen the payments infrastructure.”
Most sectors of the economy, including lending, have witnessed a need for full digitisation that has been catalysed by the pandemic. The NBFC sector had to quickly digitise their borrower onboarding, loan disbursement and importantly, loan repayment processes.
Cashfree is also the first fintech platform in India to enable disbursal of loans and insurance claim settlements. The company has more than 50,000 businesses using its payment gateway to accept payments via more than 100 payment methods with one simple integration and processes more than $12B worth of transactions annually.
In the beginning of 2020, Cashfree launched Instant Settlements on its payment gateway, recurring payments via Subscriptions and a UPI Stack with 15+ ready-to-use integrations for all business payment needs including collections, disbursals, and verifications using UPI infrastructure. The Instant Settlement feature helps merchants access funds within 15 minutes of payment capture via its payment gateway even on holidays, as compared to the industry standard of two to three business days. The feature also helps online businesses with increased working capital availability and has also witnessed rapid adoption since its launch.