Move Over UPI, RBI Governor Introduces Unified Lending Interface For Faster Loans

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday launched the Unified Lending Interface. This will cut down the time taken for credit appraisal, especially for smaller and rural borrowers.

"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," Das said at the Digital Public Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies conference organised by the RBI.

The ULI platform went through a pilot launch last year, where the central bank tested the efficacy of the system in real life situations. At the time, this was called Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit.

"The ULI architecture has common and standardised APIs, designed for a 'plug and play' approach to ensure digital access to information from diverse sources," the RBI Governor said.

By digitising access to customer’s financial and non-financial data that otherwise resided in disparate silos, ULI is expected to cater to large unmet demand for credit across various sectors.

"Based on our experience from the pilot project, a nation-wide launch of the ULI will be done in due course," Das said.

According to the RBI Governor, ULI is expected to play a similar role as UPI did in the consumer payments space.

"The ‘new trinity’ of JAM-UPI-ULI will be a revolutionary step forward in India’s digital infrastructure journey," he said.