During this pandemic, most of the people have seen deterioration in their cash flows and monthly incomes.

MSMEs that were not into essential services and had to keep their business shut, for a prolonged period; people working in the worst-hit sectors such as hospitality, aviation, logistics and so on saw salary cuts and job losses.

This resulted in the significant reduction of the discretionary spending on lifestyle, entertainment, travel, ‘impulse’ purchases. Most households postponed their big-ticket expenditures like the purchase of durables, and home renovation. The cards spend and fresh loan disbursals dropped to 30 per cent of pre-Covid levels, in April-May 2020, with 40 per cent of the customers seeking a moratorium on their credit facilities subsequently.

Return to normalcy

While the spread of the virus continues, communities and work-places alike, are trying to get back to normal lives and routines. This is necessitated due to the adverse impact that the continued lockdown has had on the economy.

We also see the card spends coming back 75 per cent of the pre-Covid levels, so discretionary spending has restarted albeit at a lower level and therefore the need for credit (cards and loans) has seen a rebound.

By our estimates the credit demand has recovered to 50-60 per cent of pre-Covid levels overall; some of the key trends emerging in credit off-take are:

The key trends

Better profile: The average profile of the loan seeker has improved in terms of income and creditworthiness. This could be attributed to salary cuts and job losses, even for some mid-income level executives, who had, before the current crisis never felt the need to take a personal loan. Another factor is lenders have also become risk averse and are lending only to the ‘creamy layer’ during the pandemic.

Lower interest rates: Personal loan demand is driven by the lower interest rates. The rate of interest on personal loans, offered by banks and NBFCs, has seen a drop ranging from 100 bps to 300 bps. This is mainly on account of the massive rate cut by the RBI and excess liquidity in the system.

Debt consolidation: The need for consolidation of higher cost credit cards debt is evident. A lot of people had started conserving cash, during the pandemic and that has led to elevated card outstanding.

Movement back to smaller towns: Home renovation as an end use for individuals who have moved back to their home town, to save on the higher cost of living in the metros, and the fact that there is work from home facility offered to most of them.

Lower quantum & tenor: There is a trend of lower loan quantum and lower tenor being sought by salaried individuals. This could be because the requirements are limited to specific end-uses and people are trying to be judicious about the usage of debt.

One can also see evolution, across lending institutions in terms of products being offered and underwriting therein:

(a) Digitisation of the processes, with the focus on ‘contact-less’ being key, in terms of customer journeys.

(b) The role of central repositories like EPFO and micro-service providers like Perfios, Cred, Karza etc. has become more critical.

(c) In line with the demand, the debt consolidation as the mantra, given the lower rate is the focus area for most of the lenders.

(d) Trust but verify seems to be the ethos. A significant weightage is assigned to current income and employment in addition to past performance on credit products.

(e) The reduced reliance on bureau scores, unless the bureaus evolve to give more information to lenders, on recent stress, moratorium, continuity of income etc.

(f) Salary cuts or overall reduction in supplementary income is a common reality with some estimates pegging 50 per cent of workforce in India impacted. This has resulted in extra vigilant underwriting process, involving evaluation of debt burden with reduced income. Temporary ballooning of credit card debt, seems to be a common symptom and very clean past performance enables the underwriters to take a call, selectively.

(g) Availing of moratorium is viewed as a clear sign of stress, it is generally coupled with loss of income either through salary cuts/job losses. Lenders are factoring in higher interest burden that these customers have to bear and avoid sanctioning fresh credit to those who continued to be on moratorium throughout.

In these unprecedented times, it is extremely prudent for individuals to ensure that debt is availed with specific end-use in mind, with a measured approach towards the loan ticket size. At the same time, lending in the post-Covid world has to be done with utmost vigilance and verification. The key is to rely on the current financial state of the applicant, in addition to past performance.

The writer is Business Head- Personal Loans, Clix Capital

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