ICICI Becomes 1st Indian Bank To Use Satellite Data For Giving Loans: Eligibility, Rules, & More

The ICICI Bank will now be employing data obtained from satellite for credit assessment of farmers.

This makes the bank the first one ever to do this in India and among very few across the globe.

How does the ICICI Bank plan to use satellite data to assess the creditworthiness of farmers? Let’s find out!

ICICI Bank Becomes First Bank To Use Satellite Data For Credit Assessment Of Farmers

ICICI Bank has announced that they will put to use satellite data, in other words, they will be deciding the creditworthiness of customers that belong to the farming sector with the help of imagery obtained from earth observation satellites. 

Under this, the bank will be using the data procured through satellites to analyze about 40 parameters related to the land, irrigation, and crop patterns. These will be used in combination with the demographic and financial parameters in order to make lending decisions for the farmers. 

This technology will also help the farmers that already have credit to improve their chances of eligibility and the farmers who are seeking credit will have better access to it. Farmers can avail KCC (Kisan Credit Card) loans with the help of this technology.

The verification of the land will be carried out without contact therefore the credit assessments will be done instantly as opposed to the industry practice of taking up to 15 days for verification. 

As per reports. the bank has been using satellite data in more than 500 villages of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat for the last few months. The future plans for this initiative are expanding to more than 63000 villages throughout the country. 

Mr. Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said, “ICICI Bank has a legacy of pioneering innovations in technology to create propositions that provide increased convenience to customers.”

ICICI Partners With Agri Fintech Companies To Gain Satellite Data

As per reports, the bank has partnered with agri fintech companies for this project. These companies specialize in using space technology and information about the weather for commercial purposes. 

Images available from the satellites around the entire planet will be used and algorithms will be used to analyze them and made into a report.

Here are the key satellite data that will be used by the bank:

1. Rainfall and temperature data of past years
2. Soil moisture levels in past years
3. Surface water availability
4. Trends in crop sowing including crop name, tentative sowing & harvesting weeks, crop health and yields
5. Agriculture land location details including latitude, longitude and boundary of the land
6. Nearby locations of warehouses and mandis