Faircent.Com aims at Rs 2,000 cr biz in 3-4 years

Peer-to-peer lending facilitator Faircent.Com is eying business transactions worth Rs 2,000 crore in three to four years on rising demand for loans in the country.
"We are looking at closing this financial year with business transactions at Rs 50 crore. Next year, we are looking at around Rs 200 crore (2017-18). And then we are looking at around Rs 2,000 crore of business transaction. In next three to four years we want to reach there," Rajat Gandhi Founder and CEO Faircent.Com said.
Besides, it will bring the overall interest rates down by about 2-4 per cent in the industry, he said.

In peer-to-peer (p2p) lending model, the rate of interest for loans varies as per the agreement reached between the borrower and the lender.
The process of borrowing-lending happens on a real time basis, where the lenders and the borrowers take part in a reverse auction activity.
Reverse auction takes place on the website and the lenders come and bid for the borrowers. The borrowers have a right to accept or reject it, is it more of an exchange, he added.

As a safeguard, the company does not allow the borrowers to take multiple loans at a time as one is required to repay the existing loans before applying for a new loan.

On the role of RBI, which recently came out with a consultation paper to regulate the sector, Gandhi said the industry wants the central banker to make the lending and borrowing on p2p platform consumer friendly and facilitate the business through regulations.
"The regulation should be supportive of innovation not stagnating. So, the devil is in the details of the regulations and the guidelines, they should be enabling. What we want is how supportive is the regulator," he said.
Faircent.Com also believes that till now RBI has been very supportive in bringing the sector under regulation.
"RBI is also of the view that p2p lending will bring down the interest rates and will make greater access to credit. The peer-to-peer lending disrupts the whole banking system, it removes the banks and connects one to the lender," Gandhi added.

Faircent.Com has a pan India presence, he said, adding top 40 cities account for the borrowing needs, while the lenders come from across India.
"We have people sitting in Guwahati lending money to people in Bengaluru. Our major traffic comes from the top 20 cities," Gandhi said.