The Venture Intelligence Blog

Venture Intelligence spoke to Mukesh Bubna , Founder & CEO of Peer to Peer (P2P) lending firm Monexo's on his take on the impact of the new RBI regulations on the sector and the expectations going forward. Venture Intelligence: What was your initial reaction to the recently introduced RBI regulations on P2P? Mukesh Bubna : RBI ushering P2P platforms as a new class of NBFCs is a welcome move that provides the entire sector increased credibility and reinforces the potential of a marketplace approach to credit delivery. RBI’s insistence on a business continuity plan in case of platform shut down, ‘Fit and proper criteria’ for promoter team are all steps that will boost confidence of platform lenders. Despite the existence of a few grey areas around definitional constructs and prudential caps on participants’ exposure, the framework does enough to lend clarity on key issues surrounding operational requirements, role of the P2P platform as an intermediary and man...

Business Today has a profile of the latest Indian adaptation of the Kiva.org model that enables individuals lend to the poor. Micrograam , set up in February 2010 by Rangan Varadan, a former head of banking and capital market verticals at Infosys, has devised an innovative means of extending credit to the poor by creating a portal that brings investors and borrowers together, allowing them to work out their own deals. Micrograam's initiative has been a hit: in just 16 months it has found 270 investors and helped disburse loans of around Rs 87 lakh to 563 borrowers. The timing has helped too, since the microcredit sector is currently in crisis, and loans for the poor have dried up. ...Restricting its activities to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the Bangalore-based Micrograam has so far roped in 33 NGOs which identify borrowers. It puts up a list of prospective borrowers on its portal, along with each one's profile, the amount he needs and the maximum interest he can afford. ......