In the world of lending, predictability and consistency are critical—not just for lenders managing portfolio performance, but for borrowers managing their cash flows. One of the most borrower-friendly repayment models in Loan Management Systems (LMS) is the Fixed Installment Amount structure.
This model ensures that the borrower pays the same amount each month over the life of the loan, even though the underlying principal and interest components vary over time. This simple, transparent approach makes budgeting easier and reduces payment uncertainty, especially important for salaried individuals and micro-entrepreneurs.
A Fixed Installment Amount (also known as an EMI or Equated Monthly Installment model) means the borrower repays a consistent monthly amount throughout the tenure of the loan. However, each monthly installment is split into:
While the total EMI remains constant, the proportion of interest and principal shifts every month. Early installments have a larger share of interest and a smaller share of principal. Over time, as the loan balance reduces, the interest portion shrinks and the principal portion grows.
This model is highly predictable and popular across personal loans, education loans, vehicle loans, and consumer credit.
Let’s say a borrower takes a ₹100,000 loan at a 12% annual interest rate, with a tenure of 24 months. In a Fixed Installment model:
Despite the changing interest-principal split, the borrower always pays ₹12,703 each month, making it easier to plan finances.
Here are some of the key reasons lenders and borrowers prefer this model:
Borrowers benefit from knowing the exact EMI amount in advance. This builds trust and helps in personal budgeting, especially for salaried individuals and fixed-income groups.
Lenders get regular, predictable payments, which helps in cash flow forecasting and balance sheet planning.
Because early payments are interest-heavy, lenders recover a significant portion of their earnings upfront. This helps reduce risk if the borrower precloses the loan early.
The simplicity of “same EMI every month” makes it easier to communicate loan terms to borrowers, minimizing confusion and onboarding time.
A modern LMS like CloudBankin calculates fixed installment amounts using standard amortization formulas. Based on the loan amount, interest rate, and tenure, the system:
This model can be enabled during product setup, with an option to “Fix Installment Amount.” Once enabled, it automatically controls the repayment behavior, ensuring consistent application even in high-volume environments.
The Fixed Installment Amount structure strikes a balance between simplicity, clarity, and financial discipline. It ensures that borrowers can plan their repayments with confidence, while lenders benefit from consistent cash inflows and early interest recovery.
CloudBankin LMS makes it easy to configure this strategy at the product level, with automated allocation, audit support, and dynamic balance updates. Whether you’re managing individual loans or retail portfolios at scale, fixed installment strategies can build borrower loyalty while maintaining lending efficiency.
An interesting insight on vehicle loans for lenders.
A trend we are seeing today – the first-hand vehicle ownership is decreasing with time. Why? People are upgrading their vehicles in every few years because of technological advances. And, this can be seen more with the millennial generation.
So, what should a lender do in terms of financing?
– Estimating the residual value of the vehicle at the start of the financing period.
– Charging a borrower only for the residual value (which is the difference between the value after a few years and the current value)
Example: A bike currently is INR 1 lakh. You want to buy the vehicle for 2 years. A lender will estimate the residual value of that bike today and what it would be after 2 years. If the estimated residual value = INR 45,000, the lender will charge you only that (say, INR 55,000 with interest for this instance) during your tenure.
At the end of 2-year period, you have 3 choices:
1. Return the bike and upgrade to a new one without going through the struggle of selling it.
2. Pay the lump sum remaining amount to own the vehicle outright.
3. Extend the financing and own it by keep paying the EMIs for the remaining amount of the vehicle for the next 12 or 18 months.
Benefits for the borrowers?
– Flexibility to use a vehicle and upgrade to a new one.
– Affordability to not pay for the complete value of the vehicle with the intention to use for a lesser amount of time.
– Convenience in owning the vehicle.
Say goodbye to the old lending option and embrace the new way of financing for vehicle by lenders!
How many of us know this?
1) Tiktok does Lending ( is it an entertainment company or social media company or a fintech company?
2) Youtube China does Lending
3) Top 100 internet companies in China(no matter what business they are in) do Lending
The team which was heading Lending in Tiktok was the Advertisement team. If we do Ads, we do X no of revenue. But if we do lending, we’ll get X+30% more revenue. This is on the same Ad spot.
Ad team has transformed into a lending team, and in today’s world, it’s possible because the subject matter expertise can be put in as an API and given to you.
Embedded Lending as a service is becoming popular in India too, and I am happy to be part of this ecosystem.
The answer is No. Only the top 10 crore people have access to many credit products in India. Almost all Banks focus on this market.
Once you go beyond that, the credit access rate has dropped significantly due to multiple factors.
1) Customers who are having low income(30-40K per month)
2) Not earning from an employer who belongs to Category A or B
3) Not from Tier 1 or 2 cities
NBFCs and Fintechs focus on the above segment, pushing another 10 crores of people.
But in India, 70 crores more people are formally or informally employed, which still needs to be tapped.
After smartphone penetration, people are not watching their SMS at all. They use SMS only for OTP related transactions. That’s it.
But What can a Lender see in your SMS after you consent to them?
Lender can see income, expenses, and any other Fixed Obligation like (EMIs/Credit Card).
1) Income – Parameters like Average Salary Credited, Stable Monthly inflows like Rent
2) Expenses – Average monthly debit card transactions, UPI Transactions, Monthly ATM Withdrawal Amount etc
3) Fixed Obligations – Loan payments have been made for the past few months, Credit card transactions.
It also tells the Lender the adverse incidents like
1) Missed Loan payments
2) Cheque bounces
3) Missed Bill Payments like EB, LPG gas bills.
4) POS transaction declines due to insufficient funds.
A massive chunk of data is available in our SMS (more than 700 data points), which helps Lender to make a credit decision.
#lendtech #fintech #manispeaksmoney