NEW DELHI: The combination of credit on UPI, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), and branchless banking will drive the next big leap on inclusion. UPI has reached everywhere and digital banking licenses are being talked about, said BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer (in picture).
Speaking at the FinTech Festival India on Wednesday, he said, “If the BNPL ecosystem is targeted well towards the population who still don’t possess credit cards, it is a massive opportunity, and we can leapfrog the number of cards present in the country given the fact that there are 2.5 million card terminals as compared to 25 million QR code terminals.”
He added that one of the challenges that BNPL solves is accessibility to smaller but frequent loans, which banks do not cater to as there is a high cost of underwriting, process, and infrastructure. Sameer said the cost of actual delivery of credit cards into rural towns will be around `250-300, and also credit activation rate is 20% now, but in the case of BNPL, the cost involved is just downloading the app, which costs Rs 5-6.
A new report released by financial technology company FIS says BNPL is India’s fastest-growing online payment method. BNPL is projected to rise to 8.6% of e-commerce market value by 2025, up from just 3% in 2021. Talking about the next innovation in payments, Sameer said ‘Tap on Phone’ has the potential to scale up and so do Blockchain and Crypto, though still at the nascent stage.
Vikas Bansal, Director, Amazon Pay India, said, “BNPL model is online and it’s embedded into the purchase and retail journey of consumers. It is completely digital and instead of paperwork, one can sign up in less than 60 seconds.”