New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) The Unified Lending Interface (ULI) is envisioned as a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in the lending space, designed to integrate technology, data, and policy into one seamless platform, senior government officials said on Monday.

The Department of Financial Services (DFS) at Ministry of Finance convened a high-level meeting, co-chaired by M. Nagaraju, Secretary, DFS and T. Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor of RBI in New Delhi, on scaling up ULI.

The ULI is a technology-based initiative to make frictionless credit available to every Indian and to further the government’s broader vision of digital empowerment, financial inclusion, and last-mile service delivery.

The participants included senior officials from various ministries/ departments of the government of India, state governments, the Reserve Bank of India and the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub.

Nagaraju said as UPI revolutionised the payment ecosystem, the ULI is poised to transform credit delivery — making it inclusive and redefine how credit is accessed and delivered across India.

He emphasised that the rich, trusted and high-value datasets available with Central Government Ministries/Departments and State governments, which when leveraged appropriately by lenders, can power data-driven, inclusive, and faster lending, especially for underserved borrowers.

He also emphasised that appropriate integration of various separate similar initiatives operating to serve specific purposes with ULI for deriving synergy to build a unified and resilient national lending ecosystem, while preserving their identity.

Shankar stated that as part of its mandate to manage the credit system of the country, it wanted to bring innovation to the lending space.

While thanking DFS for convening this high-level meeting, he urged various ministries and state governments and to treat the meeting as a collaborative starting point and a two-way engagement, where all stakeholders proactively recognise the value of ULI as a transformative DPI and contribute to its effectiveness by integrating as many relevant datasets as possible to unlock its full potential.

He further stated that ULI can surpass the transformative impact of UPI.

—IANS

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