A comprehensive report released by Bain & Company and NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd (NBBL) at the Global Fintech Fest highlights that a centralised interoperable digital layer could successfully bridge India’s massive Rs 60 lakh crore ($700B+ approx.) formal MSME credit gap.
The Scale of the Challenge
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The Deficit: Current institutional financing channels meet only 30% to 40% of the aggregate debt demand from smaller Indian enterprises.
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Delayed Receivables: Beyond access to credit, the report points out that micro, small, and medium enterprises struggle with an estimated Rs 8 lakh crore in pending delayed payments, largely driven by information mismatches, unverified purchase orders, and reconcirilation friction.
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Economic Footprint: India’s formal business sector accounts for over Rs 130 lakh crore in economic activity, making up roughly 45% of the nation’s gross value added (GVA).
How the Centralised Digital Layer Works
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Connecting Ecosystem Stakeholders: The proposed architecture uses standardised Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to seamlessly link businesses, commercial banks, alternative financiers, payment processors, and public databases.
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Automating Order-to-Cash Workflows: The infrastructure integrates smoothly with existing business setups to automate reconciliation across more than 20 crore monthly GST e-invoices.
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Enabling Cash-Flow Underwriting: By turning buyer-confirmed invoices into verifiable, financeable digital records, lenders can transition from rigid collateral-based lending to flexible, cash-flow-based underwriting.
The Role of Next-Gen Tech
The report emphasizes that layering artificial intelligence and smart data tools onto this digital infrastructure can scale benefits exponentially. Capabilities like cash-flow intelligence, dynamic risk scoring, agentic credit underwriting, and open-market data integration can fully automate the B2B trade lifecycle, making credit faster, cheaper, and safer for underserved enterprises.
