ICICI Bank announced on Monday that it has collaborated with Amazon India to provide independent sellers and small businesses enrolled on the e-commerce company’s online marketplace an overdraft (OD) facility of up to Rs 25 lakh.
The announcement comes just days before the festive season and the e-commerce company’s India-focused ‘Great Indian Festival’ sale, which begins on October 3. For context, Flipkart’s “The Big Billion Days” sale, also begins on October 3.
The partnership will allow Amazon marketplace sellers to secure an OD from the bank digitally. Customers of other banks can also use the bank’s OD service if they are registered as sellers on Amazon India, according to an ICICI Bank statement published on Monday.
The partnership, which is powered by API integration, allows sellers to secure an OD from the Bank in a totally digital approach, from application to sanction to disbursement, according to the bank. Sellers who have an ICICI Bank current account can leverage the OD to meet their working capital needs instantly. While Customers from other banks can receive the OD by opening a digital current account with the Bank.
Pankaj Gadgil, Head- Self Employed Segment, SME & Merchant Ecosystem, ICICI Bank, commented on the development, saying, “The partnership stands to enable sellers to avail instant overdraft up to Rs. 25 lakh in a completely digital manner. They can start using the OD amount immediately to meet their working capital requirements. This new and improved process will help the sellers, who may otherwise not get access to adequate credit when assessed in the traditional way of using only balance sheets, bank statements, and tax returns.”
ICICI Bank has developed a facility that leverages an industry-first scorecard to speedily analyze the creditworthiness of sellers based on their financial profile, along with Credit Bureau scores. According to ICICI Bank, the new credit evaluation approach provides great ease to sellers because it minimizes the need for sellers to depend heavily on paper-intensive bank statements or income tax returns to determine creditworthiness. It also enables ‘new-to-credit’ small businesses and individual sellers, as well as ‘existing MSME borrowers,’ to receive instant credit facilities.
ICICI Bank introduced its digital platform, ‘Merchant Stack,’ in April, with the goal of serving around 2 crore retail merchants across India. The platform provides retailers, online businesses, and large e-commerce companies with a wide range of banking and value-added facilities, such as digital current account opening, instant overdraft facilities based on point-of-sale transactions, and instant settlement of point-of-sale transactions, among many others.
