Paytm Labs In Toronto Working On Developing Loan Credibility Score

In 2015, digital payments company Paytm took its technology bank to Toronto, Canada as it began operations in the country and also set up Paytm Labs “To Build Better Data Centric Products”.

The company works on Paytm’s data assets and has built data products that are ‘live’ today. The new product the company is reportedly working on is the mechanism to determine the “credibility score” of a person seeking a loan from the bank.

The team led by Harinder Takhar, CEO, Paytm Canada believes that the mechanism would go a long way in aiding banks to determine whether it would be safe to grant a loan to an individual.

“The credibility of an individual can be ascertained from the nature of his digital transactions, which tell you a lot about his behaviour. If a reliable system is evolved, which can predict with sufficient accuracy about the capacity and willingness of an individual to return his/her loan, it would tremendously help the lender,” Takhar said.

The company is with its nearly 100 employees from diverse backgrounds is working on an algorithm to present a solution.

Takhar also added that “access to capital” is pivotal to growth and underlined the need of capital for a small-level entrepreneur who aspires to grow his business but is unable to do so on account of non-release of loans by banks.

Earlier reports have quoted Takhar as saying that his team, on one hand, looks at transactions that are not legitimate and on the other, looks for new revenue opportunities.

He said the Toronto office houses the “fraud prevention” team of Paytm which has nearly 10 data-crunching experts keeping a close eye on the digital purchases being made through Paytm. Any suspicious activity by a client is immediately red-flagged to the team in India.

With plans to make it big in Canada, Paytm is also eyeing to capitalise on the lack of Canadian customers indulging in making digital payments. 

The Indian payments giant is also collaborating with PayPay, SoftBank and Yahoo Japan’s newly launched digital payments company.

Paytm’s good days started with the demonetisation announced in November 2016. Since then, the company has been on an upward growth trajectory, diversifying its portfolio into insurance, lending, payments bank, events, etc.

From reaching 300 Mn customers on Paytm to launching Paytm Payments Bank, the company is making waves in the digital payments industry, ecommerce, and even ticketing.

With Payments bank and wealth management already under its purview, lending may be the next big project coming from the company and this credit score will be a huge help to the company.

[The development was reported by ET.]