Setting its sights on dominating the mass market in personal loans, Jio Financial Services (JFS) has begun offering unsecured loans starting from as low as Rs 30,000. Apart from launching personal loans, the NBFC’s website showed that the company has also started offering consumer durable loans, marking its foray into the lending business. Considering the rise of digital payments in the country, Jio Financial is offering personal and consumer durable loans through online channels.
The launch of personal and consumer durable loans has come at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased risk weights on personal loans to check the unbridled growth in unsecured loans. On November 16, the banking sector regulator increased the risk weights on the exposure of banks towards consumer credit, credit card receivables and NBFCs. Within the personal loans, the central bank has raised concerns about loans below Rs 50,000 where NBFCs have high exposure as compared to banks.
According to the JFS website, customers can apply for an instant personal loan online by visiting the MyJio app and following the steps mentioned in the loan section. Queries sent to JFS regarding the launch of personal and consumer durable loans remained unanswered. JFS has kept documentation as low as possible and customers will not need to submit any physical document. “For the online personal loan application, you only need to provide your PAN number, Aadhaar number, and Aadhaar-linked mobile number. No physical documents are required,” said the company on its website.
Salaried or self-employed individuals in between 23 years and 58 years are eligible for personal loans. To grab customers’ attention in the consumer durable segment, the company is offering these loans at zero-cost EMI and with zero down payment. However, customers will be required to pay processing fees while availing themselves of consumer durable loans.
“To obtain a Jio Finance consumer durable loan, all you need to do is visit the merchant’s website and choose the product you wish to purchase, such as a mobile phone, AC, camera, tablet etc,” said the company. “During the payment process, select Jio Finance as your preferred option to complete your purchase,” it added.
However, consumer durable loans are still not available in Reliance Retail stores. “Financing through Jio Financial Services’s consumer durable loans is still not available in our store. It is expected to be introduced later,” manager of a Reliance Retail store in Mumbai told FE. The company has also launched loans for small businesses. Under its Jio Finance Merchant Trade Credit Facility, the company offers credit line for registered merchants of JioMart Partner – B2B Wholesale. It provides unsecured credit to finance inventory purchases.