Amazon, Flipkart move into consumer lending in India

Amazon and Flipkart are expanding into consumer lending in India, challenging local banks with new financial products.

Amazon, which acquired Bengaluru-based non-bank lender Axio earlier this year, plans to offer loans and cash management services to small businesses, alongside its existing buy now, pay later and personal loan products.

It is also offering fixed deposit savings products through Amazon Pay.

Flipkart, majority-owned by Walmart, has registered a lending arm called Flipkart Finance and is awaiting final approval from the Reserve Bank of India to launch pay later and consumer loan offerings.

Company filings indicate it will provide no-cost installment loans for online shoppers and consumer durable loans with interest rates between 18% and 26% per year.

Both Amazon and Flipkart rank among the top 10 platforms for payments via India’s Unified Payments Interface.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) licensing keeps big tech growth measured

Flipkart received India’s first Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) lending license for a large e-commerce platform on March 13, 2025 after a 2022 application 1. The approval allows loans but blocks deposit taking, so Flipkart must rely on wholesale debt or parent cash 1.
Amazon owns Axio, an NBFC for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) plus personal loans 2, yet moving into small business credit still needs clearance under tighter digital lending rules, and the RBI pegs annual disbursements above $350 billion by the late 2020s 3.
Expect strict licensing, higher capital, plus sharper disclosures as the RBI watches BNPL for opaque fees or rising household debt 3, so product rollouts may face delays or tighter scopes after initial approvals 3.

Vendors of underwriting and collections tools can target banks using Account Aggregator (AA) frameworks

Big tech entry lifts digital loan volumes, which boosts demand for compliant underwriting and collections tools tied to the Account Aggregator (AA) network with 600 plus participants as of March 2025 4.
AA enables secure, consent-based data sharing between Financial Information Providers such as banks plus Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) plus insurers and Financial Information Users like lenders 5, which cuts paperwork through a common setup 6.
Vendors built for risk analytics, loan origination, or repayment orchestration should sell to banks and NBFCs live as Financial Information Providers (FIPs) or Financial Information Users (FIUs) in AA 7, while 17 licensed Account Aggregators create clear entry points for compliant data intelligence plus portfolio governance across multi-partner lending 5 2.