Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform: A Fully Digitalized Green Financial Platform

P2P lending is a form of loan lending in which individuals lend to one another. The "Peer-to-Peer lending" platform is a unique green business model because it is an online sustainable business model that connects borrowers to investors paperless to fulfil their financial (loan) needs. Borrowers get hassle-free funds at a comparatively lower interest rate, and investors get a high return. The P2P platform acts as a mediator (intermediary) who matches lenders with borrowers and helps them with their financial activity by providing necessary information. The RBI guidelines show that P2P lending platforms are known as NBFC-P2P, but investors and borrowers both must pay a specific rate of tax (GST 18%) for availing of this facility. All transaction on this platform is transparent no any hidden charges are taken by this platform. This platform helps borrowers and investors fulfil their financial needs. Borrowers get loans, and investors earn interest. Growth in the P2P market is increasing due to the transparency system in P2P lending, which can be attributed to the implementation of technology such as block chains and smart contracts into lending platforms. The aim of this paper is to find out the level of awareness among people regarding this platform and how this fully digitalized green branch is contributing towards green banking, an environmentally friendly financial platform. The sample size was 140 respondents from Jaipur city. The respondents were selected based on judgmental sampling. The result shows that people prefer to avail loans through P2P lending. The major challenges of the P2P lending platform are the security concerns of investors and borrowers. The NBFC-P2P does not provide any kind of guarantee for repayment of loans to the lenders. The paper also suggests that the RBI should make a policy regarding deposits with NBFC-P2P lending to provide security to investors' money. Thus, RBI should make certain mandatory disclosures about security aspects. This will allow the platform to grow rapidly. This platform already contributes to sustainable development by doing all work paperless, which is termed "branchless" or "green banking," in order to save the environment and meet the commitment made at COP26 to make India net zero emission by 2070.