Unified Lending Interface (ULI)
Mission
To enable the frictionless delivery of credit for a billion Indians.
Unlocking new financial & non-financial data
Enabling digital frictionless credit
Standardised APIs
Plug-and-play model
Project Overview
With rapid progress in digitalisation, India has embraced Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) which has enabled convenience, transparency and enhanced efficiency for all citizens across digital identity, payments and other financial and non-financial activities.
However, while diverse sources of financial and non-financial data required by lenders for digital credit delivery may exist, it often lies in silos across different entities like Central and State government authorities, Fintechs, Techfins, Account Aggregators, Credit Information Companies and Digital Identity Authorities, to name a few. Lenders, as part of their credit underwriting, need to individually connect with all these data sources, making it highly cumbersome and costly.
To facilitate the efficient delivery of frictionless credit, Hon’ble RBI Governor, Shri Shaktikanta Das, announced the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) at the RBI@90 Global Conference on August 26, 2024, in Bengaluru. The pilot of ULI (previously known as the Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit) began in August 2023. During his speech, the Governor mentioned that the new trinity of JAM-UPI-ULI will be a revolutionary step forward in India’s digital infrastructure journey. Just like the UPI transformed the payments ecosystem, the ULI will play a similar role in transforming the lending space in India.
The ULI was developed by RBIH and co-conceptualized with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). ULI is a technology platform built to facilitate easy access to authenticated data from various sources, through standardised APIs to which all lenders can connect seamlessly through a ‘plug and play’ model.
The platform is unlocking critical financial, non-financial and alternate data for lenders including digitised state land records, milk pouring data from milk federations, satellite data and property search services, to name a few, through a single interface.
With a one-time integration with the platform, lenders can leverage information from all these sources, eliminating the need for them to carry out multiple bilateral integrations with each data and service provider.
As the pilot expands and incorporates more diverse data sources, ULI is poised to completely transform credit delivery in the country.
Key Data Sources Live on the Unified Lending Interface (ULI)
Land Record Systems: Integrates digital land record systems of state governments.
GSTN Data: Fetches GSTN forms and other relevant data.
Milk Pouring Insights: Cash flow and milk pouring data from State Dairy Federations.
Satellite Data: Provides satellite imagery and analytics data.
Authentication & Verification: Enables Aadhaar e-KYC, e-Sign, PAN validation, Bank account verification, e-Stamping.
Transliteration: Transliterating documents to various languages.
Account Aggregators: Consolidates digital financial information from customers’ accounts in real-time.
Digilocker: Provides secure access to verified documents of customers.
House/Property Search Data: Consolidates property data & analytics from various sources (real estate authorities, legal authorities, etc) for underwriting housing loans.
CGTMSE: Facilitates government-backed credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs
RBIH’s past innovations now integrated into the Unified Lending Interface (ULI)
01
End-to-end Digitalisation of KCC Lending
Making working capital accessible seamlessly to 120 million farmers across India, at their doorstep, via the Unified Lending Interface.
02
End-to-End Digitalisation of Cattle Financing
Seamless, paperless delivery of credit to India’s 80 million dairy farmers, using milk collection data from cooperative societies, via the Unified Lending Interface.
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