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All peer-to-peer lending (P2P) platforms would be treated as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and will be regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), according to a government of India notification released on Wednesday. Bhavin Patel, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of LenDenClub, said: "This RBI regulation will bring much-needed legal clarity in the system, and lenders/platform will get legal rights to take adequate steps against defaulters. Also, regulation will mean wide acceptability of this concept among lenders as well as borrowers. This will fulfill RBI's expectation of taking P2P lending to the masses of this country." Source: Money Control

Peer to peer (P2P) lending companies claim to provide loans at lower rates compared to banks. We ask the experts what impact this can have on the overall interest rate scenario in the country. Bhavin Patel, founder and CEO, LenDenClub The interest rate theory works on supply of money in the system and the risk associated with an investment. When the supply goes up, it brings in downward pressure on the banks to bring interest rates down. As it is now clear that RBI is regulating the P2P segment, many more lenders will be willing to be a part of P2P lending. This will bring in liquidity to P2P platforms, resulting in a reduction in the interest rate offered to borrowers. P2P loans are executed by arranging an electronic meeting of lenders and borrowers on the platform. If lenders have excess liquidity and start pushing higher amounts, they may ask for lesser yield. The impact could be a reduction of at least 1.5% over the next year on P2P platforms themselves. The other important aspect in determining interest rates is the risk associated with P2P loans. As these loans were not reported to any of the credit bureaus earlier, the chances of defaults were higher compared to similar retail loans. However, now, after the RBI regulations, the bureau reporting process will be started. This will make borrowers more concerned about timely payment of loans, bringing down the probability of default. This will reduce repayment risk, resulting in interest rates going down. Both of the above factors will act in favor of borrowers. However, it will take some time before we see the real impact of interest rate reduction.

Live Mint: Peer-to-peer lenders are now NBFCs This development means that P2P companies are now recognized by the Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said, through an 18 September gazette notification, that peer-to-peer lenders (P2P)-companies that provide loan facilitation services from their platform-will be treated as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). You can read the notification here. While the regulator's detailed guidelines for this sector are still pending, this development means that P2P companies are now recognised by the banking regulator. You may have come across various P2P lenders that claim to give very high returns. Let us first understand what exactly is P2P lending and how it works.