Mumbai, Sep 27: ICICI Bank today announced that it has partnered with Amazon India to offer overdraft (OD) facility upto Rs 25 lakh to individual sellers and small businesses registered on the e-commerce company’s online marketplace, www.amazon.in, instantaneously and digitally.

Driven by API integration, the partnership enables sellers to avail an OD from the Bank in a process–from application to sanction to disbursement– that is entirely digital. Even customers of other banks can avail the OD facility from ICICI Bank, if they are registered as sellers with amazon.in.

Leveraging advanced data analytics, ICICI Bank has developed this new facility that functions on the back of an industry-first scorecard to instantly evaluate credit worthiness of sellers based on their financial profile including Credit Bureau scores.

The new credit assessment method offers significant convenience to the sellers as it does away with the paper-intensive bank statements or income tax returns for assessing credit worthiness. Further, it empowers small businesses and individual sellers who are ‘new-to-credit’ and ‘existing MSME borrowers’ to unlock the value of their digital transactions and get access to instant credit.

Sellers having current account with ICICI Bank can immediately start using the OD to meet their working capital requirements. Customers of other banks can avail the OD by simply opening a current account with the Bank digitally.  

Speaking on the initiative, Pankaj Gadgil, Head- Self Employed Segment, SME & Merchant Ecosystem, ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Bank has always believed that access to timely credit and ease of doing business are key parameters for the growth of the MSME businesses. In line with this, we are pleased to launch the OD facility for sellers registered on amazon.in instantly and digitally. The partnership stands to enable sellers to avail instant overdraft up to Rs. 25 lakh in a completely digital manner. They can start using the OD amount immediately to meet their working capital requirements. We have specially curated a new way of assessing credit worthiness of the sellers on the basis of their Credit Bureau score as well as their transaction history on amazon.in.This new and improved process will help thesellers, who may otherwise not get access to adequate credit when assessed in the traditional way of using only balance sheets, bank statements and tax returns. We believe that this new proposition resonates our effort in developing path breaking innovations for MSME customers and will empower them with new avenues of business expansion.”

Vikas Bansal, Director – Amazon Pay India said, “We are prioritizing our efforts to help sellers on amazon.in bounce back from the disruption owing to COVID-19. Our mission is to enable easy and trusted access to credit for sellers with transparent policies and at low costs. Our partnership with ICICI Bank will provide sellers across India with an OD facility instantly and digitally at affordable rates to meet all their current and future requirements.”