Digital lending startup, RevFin, teams up with IIT (K) to create advanced loan underwriting process

NEW DELHI: Digital lending startup, RevFin, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute Technology (IIT) Kharagpur for the development of a psychometric assessment in the Loan underwriting process which was signed under the aegis of Prof Pallab Dasgupta, Dean, SRIC, IIT Kharagpur.

This is going to be an avant-garde project which will have a positive and dominant impact on the fintech industry by solving the problem of financial underwriting in Tier II and Tier III cities.

The purpose of the project is to provide the fintech industry with the contemporary method of underwriting a loan application by using holistic human behavior as it will complement the traditional way of looking at credit history. The innovation will calculate the borrower's intention to repay a loan by measuring their mental capabilities and behavioral style through psychometrics.


In a statement, Sameer Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, RevFin opined, "We are aiming to develop a modern technology tool that will revolutionize the process of loan underwriting and will accelerate financial inclusion pan India.Our to-be-developed tool will help financial institutions easily underwrite loans for first-time borrowers. This will go a long way in achieving the noble objective of financial inclusion in the country."


Prof Priyadarshi Patnaik, Coordinator of the Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness at IIT Kharagpur, in a statement said, "Despite widespread awareness, availability of data and subsequent efforts to measure and aid financial inclusion, we still see a huge gap in it in our country. I think there is a greater need for scientific intervention to this problem. We need newer metrics to gauge creditworthiness of people which more scientific and contemporary methods that capture human intent. This is where the need for social metrics and psychometrics of borrowers emerge."

The tool will be available for deployment within two years and will be spearheaded by Prof. Manas K. Mandal, behavioral scientist, IIT Kharagpur. RevFin is also looking at making this technology as a go-to tool globally for loan underwriting processes.