P2P lenders focusing on fixed tenure products after RBI rap

PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) LENDING platforms are increasingly focusing on fixed-tenure products as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has expressed displeasure over liquid funds or instant withdrawal products.

- AJAY RAMANATHAN

Industry sources say that a customers have majority of migrated to fixed-tenure products from instant liquid funds in recent months. As a result, the impact on the overall business of platforms is considered insignificant.

"In the last six to seven months, we have slowed down on instant withdrawal products. We will wind it up by March 31. We do not see any material impact on the business," a senior official at a leading P2P platform said on condition of anonymity.

In January, the Association of P2P Lending Platforms in India asked its members to stop offering instant withdrawal products after March 31. LenDenClub, Liquiloans, Faircent and Lendbox are among the noteworthy P2P platforms in the country.

Following the industry-wide decision, Liquiloans has written to its business partners informing them that it would pause the instant withdrawal option for all new lenders. Various platforms are in the process of migrating existing customers to fixed-tenure products. Consumer-facing platforms like Cred and Bharat Pe offer P2P as an investment opportunity for their users in partnerships with Liquiloans and LenDenClub.

"We guided all platforms to roll back the instant withdrawal feature. The idea was to migrate a majority of users to tenured products. Ultimately, the decision was taken unanimously for the betterment of the industry," said Bhavin Patel, cofounder of LenDenClub and vice president, Association of P2P Lending Platforms.