India’s private sector lender, Axis Bank, and Piramal Finance, a Mumbai-based NBFC-HFC, announced a co-lending partnership on Monday.
Through this partnership, both lenders will offer loans to middle and low-income segment borrowers, focusing on rural and semi-urban regions.
The partnership will leverage the financial expertise of Axis Bank and the loan processing technology of Piramal Finance to assess the credit profiles of borrowers and provide them with loans at competitive interest rates through a network of 490 branches of Piramal Finance.
This co-lending partnership will cater to potential customers who are either new to credit or untapped by larger institutions, building a multi-product loan book.
Jairam Sridharan, Managing Director, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd, said, “By leveraging Axis Bank’s expansive network and Piramal Finance’s deep reach, we are well-positioned to penetrate deeper geographies across Bharat.”
Co-lending, or co-origination, is a setup where banks and non-banks enter into an arrangement for the joint contribution of credit for priority sector lending. Under this arrangement, both banks and NBFCs share the risk in a ratio.
Axis Bank and Piramal Finance aim to address the credit gap faced by MSMEs and home loan borrowers by utilising their customer reach and credit underwriting and assessment tools.
