Mumbai: ICICI Bank today announced that it has partnered with Flipkart to offer an instant and completely digital overdraft (OD) facility of up to ₹25 lakh to individual sellers and businesses registered on the e-commerce platform. Enabled by API integration, the partnership helps sellers to avail an OD from the Bank instantly in a process- from application to sanction to disbursement – that is entirely digital. Customers of any bank can avail of ODs from ICICI Bank if they are registered as sellers with Flipkart.
Sellers having a current account with ICICI Bank can immediately start using the OD to meet their working capital requirements. Customers of other banks can avail of the OD by simply opening a current account with ICICI Bank digitally, post KYC verification.
Speaking on the initiative, Mr Pankaj Gadgil, Head – Self Employed Segment, SME & Merchant Ecosystem, ICICI Bank said, “The quick processing of the OD facility has been made possible by a specially developed scorecard for the credit assessment of the sellers. This new and improved process helps individual sellers and businesses 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 with our effort in developing path-breaking innovations for MSME customers and will empower them with new avenues of business expansion.”
Mr Dheeraj Aneja, Senior Vice President – Fintech and Payments Group, Flipkart said, “As sellers and MSME partners from across the country continue to put their trust in Flipkart marketplace, we want to ensure that our efforts to enable their business growth entails financial support as well. Flipkart has been working towards the financial independence of its sellers through its dedicated program – Growth Capital and continues to evolve it based on market requirements.”
Benefits of ‘InstaOD’ for Flipkart sellers:
End to end digital processing: Sellers registered on Flipkart can apply for the OD instantly through Flipkart Seller Hub, an online portal for Flipkart sellers, in a completely digital and paperless manner
Quick evaluation: ICICI Bank evaluates sellers instantly on the basis of their Credit Bureau score and their transaction history on Flipkart, making the loan approval process easy and quick. This is a marked improvement over the typical process which demands sellers to go through the tedious paper-intensive process of submitting income tax returns, bank statements and GST returns.
Immediate sanction and disbursal: The approved OD amount is instantly sanctioned and disbursed into the seller’s current account
Interest benefit: Interest is payable only on the amount of OD utilised by sellers
Auto-renewal facility: The OD is renewable on an annual basis, depending on the repayment track records of the seller
Steps for the sellers to avail the ‘InstaOD’:
View offer: Eligible sellers can find the ICICI Bank offer on their Flipkart Seller Hub account portal
Click on the banner: The seller is redirected to ICICI Bank’s ‘InstaOD’ platform upon clicking the banner on the Flipkart Seller Hub portal
Fill the application form: The seller needs to log in and fill in the digital application form
Confirm to sanction amount: Upon confirmation of the amount from the seller, the OD is instantly sanctioned. If the seller already has a current account with ICICI Bank, then the seller can immediately start using the OD
Account opening for a new-to-bank seller: Sellers new to ICICI Bank, will be redirected for an instant opening of current account and KYC validation.
