Part 05 — The Lending Lifecycle

Sourcing Leads

Purpose

Sourcing converts market demand into controlled applications. In Indian SME lending, the channel is part of credit risk: a branch relationship manager brings different information quality from a direct selling agent (DSA), a payment gateway, an anchor distributor, a marketplace, a chartered accountant connector or a lending service provider (LSP). The stage must answer three questions before a file is allowed into pre-screening: who sourced the borrower, what was promised, and whether the borrower gave valid consent for contact, bureau pull and data retrieval.

Public lender pages show the commercial range of this market. HDFC Bank advertises collateral-free business loans up to ₹75 lakh, and up to ₹1 crore in select locations, at rack rates of 10.75%-22.50% with 12-48 month tenure (HDFC Bank business loan). Tata Capital advertises ₹1-90 lakh unsecured business loans, 12-60 month tenure and interest from 12% p.a. (Tata Capital business loan). Bajaj Finance advertises ₹2-80 lakh business loans, 12-96 month tenure and 14%-23% p.a. rates (Bajaj Finance business loan). A sourcing funnel must therefore capture product, amount, tenor, risk band and channel economics from the first interaction.

Actors

Actors include the borrower, proprietor/promoter, DSA, connector, branch sales officer, relationship manager, tele-caller, digital marketing team, partner/anchor manager, sales operations maker, DSA empanelment team, compliance, credit policy, finance payout team and audit. In embedded models, the actor list includes platform account managers from Razorpay, Pine Labs, Indifi, Rupifi, Yubi, e-commerce seller finance partners or supply-chain anchors.

Inputs & documents

Inputs are lead form, consent artefact, product selection, requested amount, business name, PAN, GSTIN, mobile, email, business vintage, pincode, industry, estimated turnover, bank name, Udyam Registration Number if available, source code, campaign code and referral/DSA code. DSA onboarding needs a DSA agreement, board/proprietor authorisation, PAN, goods and services tax (GST) registration if applicable, cancelled cheque, bank account proof, address proof, code-of-conduct acceptance, recovery/non-recovery boundary, data-confidentiality clause, anti-bribery declaration, payout grid and clawback terms.

Step-by-step workflow

Capture the lead with source, timestamp, location, product intent and consent text version.
Validate mobile/e-mail through one-time password (OTP), and lock the primary identifier: PAN for individuals/proprietors, PAN plus GSTIN or corporate identification number (CIN) for entities.
Tag channel: branch, DSA, connector, digital organic, paid campaign, LSP, co-lending partner, anchor or renewal/top-up.
Apply basic geography and product availability rules: served pincode, branchable location, minimum ticket, negative industry, minimum vintage.
Route hot leads to tele-verification or RM visit; route digital leads to self-serve KYC onboarding if consent is valid.
For DSA leads, freeze source attribution before bureau pull. Good systems do not allow manual source-code change after login without sales head approval.
Show indicative eligibility only as non-binding. Final pricing and sanction must follow credit assessment and KFS disclosure at sanction.

Exceptions & edge cases

DSA conflicts are common: two DSAs claim the same borrower; the customer first came through a paid campaign and later through a connector; or the same promoter applies through multiple GSTINs. The usual rule is first valid consent plus first complete login, with exception approval by sales governance. Other edge cases include leads sourced from restricted areas, cash-heavy businesses without formal bank credits, politically exposed persons (PEPs), adverse media, existing delinquent borrower attempting a fresh entity, and “rate-shopping” borrowers who refuse bureau consent after hearing a tentative price.

For digital journeys, avoid dark patterns. RBI’s 2025 Digital Lending Directions require LSPs with multiple regulated-entity partners to show matching offers in an unbiased digital view, including lender name, amount, tenor, APR, monthly repayment obligation, penal charges and KFS link; para 6 applies from 1 November 2025 (RBI Digital Lending Directions, 2025).

Systems touched

CRM, marketing automation, call-centre dialer, DSA portal, partner application programming interface (API), consent manager, lead dedupe, LOS, pincode/branch master, product catalogue, bureau consent store, payout engine and audit log. The DSA portal should show lead status at a coarse level only: lead received, documents pending, rejected at policy, sanctioned, disbursed, payout eligible. It should not expose bureau variables, fraud signals or credit notes.

TATs/SLAs

Tele-verification for qualified leads is commonly targeted within 2-4 business hours. Branch/RM first contact for warm leads is usually same day or next working day. DSA empanelment can take 3-10 working days depending on due diligence. Lead-to-login targets are often 24-48 hours for unsecured business loans, 3-5 days for LAP and working-capital facilities, and near-real-time for partner API journeys where data is already available.

Stage metrics

Track lead volume, valid-consent rate, contactability, lead-to-login conversion, duplicate-lead rate, source-dispute count, channel approval rate, channel first-EMI-bounce rate, DSA payout per disbursal, clawback rate, early delinquency by DSA vintage, fraud-negative rate by source and complaint rate by channel. For sales incentives, mature lenders avoid paying only on disbursement volume; they hold back 10%-30% until first or third EMI clearance or apply clawback for cancellation, first-payment default, mis-sale or forged document cases.

Co-lending/partner-origination variant

Partner sourcing adds two controls: customer ownership and offer neutrality. If an LSP fronts multiple lenders, RBI’s digital lending rules require offer comparison disclosures and no deceptive nudging. If the arrangement is co-lending, the 2025 co-lending directions require the loan agreement to disclose role segregation and identify the single customer interface (RBI Co-Lending Arrangements Directions, 2025). The sourcing record must therefore store partner id, originating regulated entity, partner regulated entity, proposed share, customer interface entity, LSP fee logic and whether any default loss guarantee (DLG) exists.

For in-app marketplace origination, the lead must also store seller id, platform vintage, consented settlement-data scope and the offer-ranking evidence described in Marketplace Seller Finance.