Flipkart is working on a video-based know your customer (KYC) method to offer instant loans to customers on its platform, the Economic Times reported. The company has started a pilot project for digital KYC with about 10,000 customers and will roll this out to more customers in the coming weeks, pending approval from the RBI. Last September the Supreme Court ruled that private companies were not allowed to make Aadhaar-based KYC mandatory for consumers. The same month, Flipkart launched ‘Cardless Credit’, offering customers instant credit of up to Rs 60,000 for 3 and 12 months. With this, the company hoped to target the 45 million Flipkart users that did not have access to any form of credit, its senior vice-president Ravi Garikipati said. It said it also planned to offer credit services outside its platform and would introduce more financial products in the coming months. Flipkart had launched its first credit service, dubbed ‘buy now, pay later’ for select customers in 2017. However, company said there remained a disparity between its credit offerings and large purchases. In October 2018 Flipkart entered the insurance segment after securing a corporate agent license, ET reported. The company partnered with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance to offer insurance as part of its mobile phone protection programme. Flipkart has also been offering sellers on its platform access to loans since 2014, through lending partners Capital Float and Lendingkart. Competition from Amazon In September 2018 Amazon Pay launched a service to allow customers with no access to credit services…
