RBI launching ULI platform to offer credit to borrowers

The RBI plans to roll out the “Unified Lending Interface (ULI)” throughout the country in order to meet the significant unmet demand for credit across various sectors, particularly for agricultural and MSME borrowers. Piloted last year, the ULI aims to accelerate the credit appraisal process and enable faster loan approvals through a consent-based flow of digital information.

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Shaktikanta Das, recently announced that the new Unified Lending Interface (ULI) platform, aimed at providing “frictionless credit,” is currently in its pilot phase and will be officially launched soon.

Speaking at the RBI@90 Global Conference on “Digital Public Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies” in Bengaluru, Das explained that the ULI platform seeks to digitize access to both financial and non-financial customer data, which often exist in separate silos. This initiative is expected to meet the large, unmet demand for credit, particularly in the agricultural sector and among Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

“This platform facilitates seamless and consent based flow of digital information, including even land records of various states, from multiple data service providers to lenders. This cuts down the time taken for credit appraisal, especially for smaller and rural borrowers. The ULI architecture has common and standardised APIs, designed for a ‘plug and play’ approach to ensure digital access to information from diverse sources. This reduces the complexity of multiple technical integrations. It enables borrowers to get the benefit of seamless delivery of credit, quicker turnaround time without requiring extensive documentation,” he said.

The ULI is being developed based on the learnings from earlier pilots, such as the digitalization of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loans under Rs 1.60 lakh, which began in September 2022. This pilot successfully demonstrated the feasibility of fully digitalizing the lending process, offering a paperless and straightforward service, including doorstep loan disbursements in a self-service mode. A similar pilot project for dairy loans was conducted in collaboration with Amul in Gujarat, using milk pouring data to facilitate the lending process.

Governor Das emphasized that, similar to how the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) revolutionized digital payments in India, the ULI has the potential to transform the lending ecosystem. “The ‘new trinity’ of JAM-UPI-ULI will be a revolutionary step forward in India’s digital infrastructure journey,” he stated.