La Banque Postale Digitalises Micro-Credit Applications with Créa-sol
La Banque Postale partners with a Marseille-based microfinance institution, Créa-Sol. The banking group will refinance part of their loans and provide financial support to this start-up. They will bet on Créa-Sol digital tools to keep developing the micro-credit sector and further assist their most fragile customers.
This partnership led them to implement a full-digital finance and management solution for micro-credits (including a digital signature process). This service is designed for financially fragile customers, and aims at reducing the decision-making time for granting them a credit.
The bank’s network will direct applicants to their partners, in charge of centralising their requests with the microfinance association. Créa-Sol proposes a new software program enabling customers’ applications to be dealt with and approved in just 5 days.
By way of ensuring continuity throughout the process, a dozen of La Banque Postale collaborators, skilled in the field of micro-credit, will be assisting Créa-Sol. La Banque Postale expect the share of approved micro-credits to grow two-fold by 2020.
Comments – Micro-credit becomes a trend
In France, the micro-credit sector has been making progress. According to Banque de France, outstanding credit amounts grew almost by 32% in three years, to reach 1.4 billion euros in the end of 2016. In order to grant more personal micro-credits, companies focusing on solidarity finance are rethinking their distribution channels and undertaking many initiatives. Just like La Banque Postale, Crédit Municipal de Paris also opted for a digital approach to reshape their distribution model. This group developed an online micro-credit platform, enabling ethical investment funds to directly finance micro-credit applications.
La Banque Postale relies on a partnership, and on outsourcing applications' processing for social entities, with a microfinance specialist. The idea is to take advantage of digital technologies, so it would take less time to approve these credits. This strategy also supports their approach to consumer credit highlighted in the end of 2017.