Flipkart Becomes First Indian E-commerce Firm to Secure NBFC License from RBI for Direct Lending Services.
Banking & Finance
In June 2025, Walmart-backed Flipkart Private Limited, India’s leading e-commerce platform, received a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), enabling it to directly extend credit to customers.
- The RBI had issued a Certificate of Registration (CoR) to Flipkart Finance Private Limited (FFPL) in March 2025. This milestone marks the first instance of a major Indian e-commerce firm obtaining an NBFC license, allowing Flipkart to offer lending services, though it is not permitted to accept public deposits.
- Flipkart aims to extend direct loans to customers via its e-commerce platform and fintech app 'super.money', while also offering financing solutions to its sellers.
- Previously partnering with financial institutions like Axis Bank and IDFC First Bank for consumer credit, Flipkart was valued at USD 37 billion in 2024 after raising USD 1 billion.
Main Point :- (i) An NBFC is a financial institution registered under the Companies Act, 1956 or 2013, primarily engaged in lending, investments in shares, stocks, bonds, and government securities, but operates differently from banks.
(ii) NBFCs are not allowed to accept demand deposits, cannot issue cheques, and do not fall under the payment and settlement system. Also, depositors of deposit-taking NBFCs are not covered under the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).
(iii) The minimum Net Owned Fund (NOF) for NBFCs is ₹10 crore. However, specialized NBFCs have higher NOF requirements, such as ₹300 crore for NBFC-Infrastructure Finance Company and IDF-NBFC, ₹100 crore for Mortgage Guarantee Companies, and ₹2 crore for NBFC-Peer-to-Peer and Account Aggregator entities.
About Flipkart Private Limited
CEO : Kalyan Krishnamurthy
Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka
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