In January, the central bank announced the “requirements regarding the cooperation of credit institutions with the financing companies”
The instruction that the fintech association also protested against this decision of the central bank and demanded changes in it, and Mehran Moharamian, the vice president of new technologies of the central bank, promised to solve their problems in a meeting with lendtechs.
But now, after two months of this instruction and as the last days of the year are approaching, it seems that the procedure of the Central Bank has not changed, and Lendtechs are spending the last days of the year every day behind the doors of the Central Bank holding numerous meetings.
According to Iran digital economy annotation, Alireza Houshmand, a member of the Board of Directors and the head of the Lendtech Commission of the Fintech Association, says: This notification was so unprofessional and hasty that it had many negative consequences for businesses in this field. Some businesses have gone to the border of closure, and those that are active, operate more slowly than before.
During the past weeks, we have held several meetings with the central bank. Of course, these meetings will continue so that we can reach an agreement on the cost structure and fees of landtechs. One of the points of disagreement in the definition of the word “facilitator” is that the added value of landtech services is not properly understood by the lawmaker. Another issue is not considering the service rate of online and offline facilities, which means that no business can survive without considering income and profit and cannot create any added value.
There is no development
Houshmand also says regarding the activities of Lendtech companies that have encountered more problems: Currently, some banks are sitting back due to the lack of clarity regarding the terms of cooperation with Lendtech businesses. These conditions can seriously damage the development and value creation of Lendtech’s businesses.
Houshmand continues: The main issue is that they combine the off-site service rate and Lendtech’s business risk management with the interest rate, which leads to saying that Lendtech has caused the interest rate to rise. When the inflation rate in the country is so high and Lendtechs pay facilities without a guarantor, all these risks are borne by Lendtech businesses and Lendtechs take the default risk rate for themselves. In addition, there are many costs on the shoulders of technological companies, which the central bank has ignored.
Regarding some companies that have received unusual interest rates, Houshmand also believes: these companies are nothing but Lendtech businesses, and one of the solutions to this problem is self-regulation by trade unions. In this regard, he says: We want to formulate a manifesto for Lendtechs. A mission that can be called self-regulation. The companies that join this mission cannot receive a higher commission rate and in this way the satisfaction of the central bank is also obtained.
Houshmand also says about the continuation of lendtechs in the coming year: in fact, businesses, like water, find their own path and continue their own path for survival, but the damage of being left behind in this market in the most important months of the year is irreparable and And other works will also be damaged under the radius of Lendtechs. Banks have also become cautious and more cautious about cooperation with Lendtechs, and this is a loss that will affect all the stakeholders of this market.
The state of microcredit services to people in the country is a disaster
Mehdi Momeni, CEO of Azkivam, says: Although our business was not shut down due to having a strong store network, we fell behind our plans and faced challenges. Currently, we are proceeding according to the instructions, but the instructions have many defects and have prevented our freedom of action, and there is no news of improvement or development in it.
He continues: Actually, by changing the names, the concept and application does not change, Lendtechs cannot operate without receiving a fee, and we have to include this interest rate in other titles on our services. This time, instead of the central bank, we will be caught by the ministry of secrecy.
Momeni says about the credit situation in the country: the situation of microcredit services to the people in the country is a disaster, we hoped that we Lendtechs could solve this problem. But with the notification of the central bank, the problem became even bigger. People still have to endure the up and down looks of the banks to get a loan.
The central bank talks about the 80% interest rate of lendtechs, if this number was not among the known lendtechs in the industry, and if such a mistake had been made, they should have been fined. Not that healthy businesses would stop our growth. For ourselves, we envisioned a 20% fish growth, which unfortunately did not come to fruition.
The number of credit transactions in Iran is 2%, while it is 70-90% in European and American countries. With this decision of the central bank, the development speed of lendtechs has been stopped and our growth has reached zero, and the regulator’s decision has reduced transparency.
Destroying lendtech tools is not the solution
In this regard, Alireza Shafiei, the CEO of Kipa, says: The experience of a one-day, one-hour, and a few-minute loan was unthinkable until a few years ago, and the activity of the Lendtech industry formed concepts in the minds of Iranian users that were unprecedented until a few years ago. But unfortunately, this instruction of the Central Bank not only does not help the transparency of providing facilities or reducing the currency rate; Rather, innovation and service provision in this industry faces a major challenge.
He continues: “Lendtech Commission” as well as FinTech “Association” have done a lot of follow-up about this resolution and we hope that the central bank will accompany and the people, businesses and the Lendtech industry will see its desired result. “Kipa” in the network of customers and adopters.
It witnessed a good growth in the past year, and during the first 6 months of this year, it experienced a four-fold growth compared to last year, and in the last three or four years, we tried to show all stakeholders that LendTechs have come to improve the supply chain; improve service speed; Create added value and move facilities to purchase goods and services.
He added: But in the end, the instructions of the Central Bank made us question all of us. In fact, we should know if we want people to have better economic welfare and look at the issue from the perspective of people and their concerns. If our answer to these questions is “yes”; Destroying the LendTech tool is not the right answer and does not seem like the right way to solve the problem.
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