Ola signs MoU with ICICI Bank to provide microcredit to users

Cab aggregator Ola has signed a MoU with ICICI Bank to bring forth a range of integrated offers for their customers and driver partners.

"This alliance will provide increased convenience to customers on both the platforms as well as hundreds of thousands of driver partners," Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ola, said in a statement.

Ola users will get access to instant small ticket digital credit from ICICI Bank, on the Ola Platform. The digital credit will be available on the basis of a real-time credit assessment algorithm created by the bank. The assessment will be based on financial and digital behaviour patterns like ride frequency and amount among others.

ICICI Bank’s spokesperson said that both the companies are yet to chalk out details of the offering such as credit limit, loan’s validity etc for Ola users. But said the offering will be similar to ICICI Bank-Paytm short-term credit offering launched two months ago.

Another offering as part of the MoU will be Ola booking facility on ICICI Bank’s mobile banking platforms. ICICI Bank customers can book a cab and pay the fare by using the bank’s mobile banking applications; ‘iMobile’ and ‘Pockets’.

ICICI Bank will offer a ‘Pay Direct’ card for Ola’s driver partners. With this, Ola’s auto and cab drivers will be able to get their daily earnings directly into their ‘Pay Direct’ card accounts. Additionally, driver partners can also swipe this card at merchant outlets for their purchases.

The Bank will also launch a new co-branded credit card in association with Ola. With this card, customers will benefit from several exclusive offers such as cashbacks and accelerated reward points.