Nudged by RBI, P2P lenders look to diversify partnerships

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

RBI) wants peer-to-peer (P2P) lending startups to work towards diversifying their partnerships to ensure there is no overlap of lenders and borrowers from the same partner which might eventually lead to asset-liability mismatch.
Three people in the know told ET that while the banking regulator has not spelt out any statement on the fledgling sector explicitly, back channel conversations between companies and the regulator have made many startups course correct.

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Issues such as promises of high interest returns and instant withdrawal of funds at will are things that many platforms are relooking into, the people said.

“The RBI has been keenly looking at the partnership models over the last one year. It does not have problems with sourcing customers from large consumer facing apps, but it does not want a closed ecosystem of borrowers and lenders to get created,” a senior executive at a P2P lending startup said on condition of anonymity. “They do not want any asset-liability management issues to crop up in this small sector.”

Overall assets under management (AUM) of P2P lenders could be about Rs 5,000 crore, industry estimates suggest. It has been more than six years since the sector got regulated.

ET reported on June 6 that the RBI had sent detailed questionnaires to the industry participants, trying to understand more about the partnership businesses.
Players such as Liquiloans, Lendbox, LenDenClub and Faircent