When the Reserve Bank of India first brought out a discussion paper on peer-to-peer lending in April 2016, it said that there were 30 such start-ups in the country. It then proceeded to fashion a set of rules for the nascent but fast growing sector and came out with regulations in October 2017. Key among them was a requirement that peer-to-peer lenders register with the RBI. Nine months since, only five of these lenders are registered in the ‘NBFC-P2P’ category, according to RBI data available until June 30, 2018.

This includes:

1. Fairassets Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
2. Fincquare Fintech Pvt. Ltd.
3. Bride Fintech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
4. Bigwin Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
5. OHMY Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

A sixth, Lenden Club, told BloombergQuint that it received a licence to operate as a NBFC -P2P lender in July. The RBI does not provide data on the quantum of P2P lending. In response to a BloombergQuint RTI query, the RBI said the lending data for P2P lenders is not available with the regulator.

The number of P2P lenders registered is far lower than the number of entities that were estimated to be operating in the segment before the regulations were put in place. While the RBI has not released the number of applications, industry executives believe that close to 40 such entities had approached the regulator for a licence.

However, stringent conditions attached by the RBI may mean that a far fewer number will formally remain in the business.

One condition, which has weeded out smaller players, is the requirement to have net owned funds of atleast Rs 2 crore. This condition may have led to smaller platforms taking a hit, said Rajat Gandhi, co-founder of Faircent, one of the five who have completed registration formalities. Gandhi, however, added that he expects larger platforms to get into P2P lending now that it is a regulated space.

Some of the P2P lenders claim they are already seeing the benefits.

Faircent claims that it is now drawing 8000 new lenders each month compared to 1500 before the RBI regulations were introduced. The number of new borrowers approaching the company has also jumped, said Gandhi of Faircent.

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