Nabard, RBIH link up to ease agri loan access

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has said it will integrate its e-KCC (electronic Kisan Credit Card) loan origination system portal with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub’s (RBIH) public tech platform for frictionless credit (PTPFC).

The integration will give about 351 district and state cooperative banks and 43 regional rural banks (RRBs) access to a range of services including digital state land records, satellite data, KYC, credit history and transliteration for more effective credit underwriting,

The collaboration between Nabard, which is the apex development bank for promoting sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development, and RBIH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the RBI, will streamline the lending process and reduce the turnaround time for loans from about o four weeks to just five minutes for India’s 12 crore farmers, a Nabard statement said.

Nabard has developed the loan origination system portal to facilitate e-KCC loan processing for cooperative banks and RRBs.

“The pilot phase of the partnership will see implementation in select RRBs, including the Karnataka Gramin Bank and Maharashtra Gramin Bank, and cooperative banks in Andhra Pradesh. The goal is to scale up the digital lending platform to cover about 5 crore KCC loans across all cooperative banks and RRBs nationwide,” Nabard said.

Shaji KV, Chairman, Nabard, said the digitisation of agricultural lending will ensure instant doorstep delivery of credit to farmers while improving the efficiency of banks.

Rajesh Bansal, CEO, RBIH, said the collaboration is not just about technology integration but also reimagining rural finance and empowering Indians with quicker, more reliable access to credit.