NABARD collaborates with RBI Innovation Hub to fast-track digital agri lending

New Delhi: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on Thursday said it has partnered with Reserve Bank's arm RBIH to put in place a system which will enable faster processing of agricultural loans.

NABARD said it will integrate its e-KCC loan origination system portal with the Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit (PTPFC) of Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the RBI.

NABARD has developed the loan origination system portal to facilitate digital Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loan processing for cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).

"The digitisation of agricultural lending will ensure instant doorstep delivery of credit to farmers while improving the efficiency of banks, advancing NABARD's mission of fostering rural prosperity," NABARD chairman Shaji K V said.

The partnership agreement was signed by the NABARD chairman and Rajesh Bansal, CEO, RBIH.

Through the integration with PTPFC, about 351 district and state cooperative banks and 43 RRBs will gain access to a range of services including digital state land records, satellite data, KYC, credit history and transliteration for more effective credit underwriting, NABARD said in a statement.

The collaboration will streamline the lending process and reduce the turnaround time for loans from three to four weeks to just five minutes for India's 120 million farmers, it said.

"This partnership is not just about technology integration, it's about reimagining rural finance and empowering our Indians with quicker, more reliable access to credit. It signifies our commitment to using innovation to deliver frictionless finance for a billion Indians," Bansal said.

The paper-based loan process takes up substantial amounts of a farmer's time, especially to acquire land records, that they could spend on income-generating activities, it said.

The PTPFC has seen the participation of over 10 states in making digital land records available to facilitate the seamless flow of credible information for lenders, NABARD said.

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, it said, adding, the goal is to scale the digital lending platform to cover about 5 crore KCC loans across all cooperative banks and RRBs nationwide.

This initiative will significantly reduce operational overheads for lenders while deepening access to credit, thereby fostering a more inclusive and efficient rural financial ecosystem, it added.