India likely to have UPI-type architecture for instant credit disbursement

"The payment architecture OCEN can truly democratise credit flow, making the process hassle-free," said Nandan Nilekani

India may soon see the emergence of a 'plug and play' protocol on the lines of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to extend instant credit to small businesses and vendors. Work on the protocol is underway with multiple stakeholders involved, while
industry thinktank iSpirt is leading the initiative.

Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2020, Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of UIDAI, and non-executive chairman at Infosys, said, just like UPI, which is a common language for payments, the proposed protocol Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is also a common language between the lenders and borrowers. “It is an architecture that