Microfinance organisations to interact with individuals via Public Services Portal
Several microfinance organisation (MFOs) have connected to the Digital Profile infrastructure, which enables their interaction with customers through the Unified Portal of Public and Municipal Services (Public Services). Individuals will be able to transfer information about themselves to MFOs via the Internet for identification purposes and for assessing credit risk when obtaining online and offline loans.
A year earlier, customers of banks and insurance companies were enabled to do this during the experiment of Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media and the Bank of Russia to launch a Digital Profile of citizens.
In November 2020, integration with the service became available for financial platform operators and MFOs. In addition, the list of customer information that companies, with the consent of citizens, will be able to receive through the Digital Profile infrastructure, has been expanded.
Among new participants, MFOs were the first to connect to this service. They have already posted on their websites information about a new service — to issue loans using the Digital Profile. Several more market participants are in the process of joining this service.
“The considerable interest of microfinance organisations in the service is explained by their wish to improve their internal procedures and enhance the quality of their services, making them accessible, convenient and safe for consumers,” said Vladimir Chistyukhin, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia. “Therefore, we support the further development of financial technology in the market segment.”
“As new financial institutions join the interaction in the framework of the Digital Profile of citizens on the Public Services Portal, we are making yet another step towards the digitalisation of public and financial services. The service is implemented taking into account the necessary information protection measures and is based on the state-owned digital government infrastructure”, informed Dmitrii Oguriaev, Deputy Minister.
Further improvement of the Digital Profile involves increasing the number of project participants, and expanding the list of information accessible through it both about individuals and about legal entities.