Amazon and Flipkart, two of India’s leading e-commerce platforms, are launching new consumer loan offerings to directly compete with the country’s established banks, as revealed in an exclusive Reuters report. The expansion into financial services aims to capture a larger share of the personal lending market in India, marking a bold pivot for these tech giants amid growing digital finance opportunities.
The development, dated November 28, 2025, signals a strategic escalation in how large e-commerce players seek to monetize their massive user bases by embedding credit into everyday online shopping. It also underscores how consumer lending is becoming a central battleground in India’s digital economy, where banks, non-bank lenders and technology platforms are racing to define the future of personal finance.
Amazon’s Entry into Consumer Lending
According to the exclusive report carried by Reuters on November 28, 2025, Amazon is rolling out specific new consumer loan offerings that target Indian users directly through its e-commerce ecosystem. The products are structured to appear as borrowing options at the checkout stage, allowing customers to convert purchases into personal loans or structured equated monthly installments without leaving the Amazon app. By embedding credit decisions into the shopping journey, Amazon is positioning these loans as a natural extension of its existing pay-later and installment features, but with a clearer focus on personal lending rather than just short-term purchase financing.
The same reporting describes how Amazon is using its deep data on purchase histories, repayment behavior on earlier pay-later products and engagement across its marketplace to streamline underwriting for these loans. That integration is designed to reduce friction for borrowers, who can receive instant approvals and disbursals tied to their Amazon accounts, while also giving the company a powerful tool to increase customer loyalty and basket sizes. For Indian consumers who already rely on Amazon for everything from smartphones to groceries, the ability to access personal credit inside a familiar interface raises the stakes for traditional banks that have historically controlled this segment.
Flipkart’s Parallel Push in Finance
The Reuters exclusive also details how Flipkart is mounting a parallel push into consumer lending, mirroring Amazon’s approach by leveraging its own vast user base for instant credit access in India. Flipkart’s new offerings are similarly integrated into its checkout and account dashboards, where customers are presented with pre-approved loan limits or tailored credit lines that can be used for big-ticket purchases such as premium smartphones, laptops or large appliances. By turning its marketplace into a gateway for personal loans, Flipkart is attempting to convert high-intent shoppers into long-term borrowers whose financial relationships are anchored to the platform rather than to a bank branch.
In the same report, Flipkart’s strategy is framed as a direct challenge to traditional banks, with the company relying on technology-driven lending models that prioritize speed, automation and user experience. The platform is described as working with digital underwriting tools and embedded risk models that can evaluate a customer’s eligibility in seconds, using behavioral and transactional data generated on Flipkart itself. That approach, which contrasts with the paperwork-heavy processes still common in many Indian banks, signals a broader shift in how consumer credit is distributed and managed, and it places additional pressure on incumbents to modernize their own digital lending capabilities.
Implications for India’s Banking Sector
The coordinated entry of Amazon and Flipkart into consumer loans, as highlighted in the November 28, 2025 Reuters reporting, intensifies competitive pressure on India’s banking sector at a moment when personal lending is one of the fastest-growing profit pools. Banks that have long relied on unsecured personal loans and credit cards to drive margins now face rivals that can originate credit at the point of sale, using real-time data and app-based journeys that many younger customers already prefer. For lenders that still depend heavily on physical branches and manual underwriting, the risk is that high-quality borrowers will increasingly migrate to e-commerce-linked credit, eroding both loan growth and fee income.
Stakeholders in the banking industry are likely to view these developments as a call to accelerate digital transformation, particularly in areas such as instant loan approvals, app-based onboarding and partnerships with online marketplaces. The Reuters report underscores that Amazon and Flipkart are not merely offering another payment option but are actively taking aim at India’s banks by positioning themselves as primary providers of consumer credit. That shift could prompt banks to deepen collaborations with fintechs, invest in their own embedded finance solutions or lobby for regulatory guardrails that ensure a level playing field, especially around data access and capital requirements.
Market and Regulatory Outlook
The Reuters exclusive on November 28, 2025 situates Amazon and Flipkart’s moves within a broader surge in India’s digital economy, where rising smartphone penetration and unified payments infrastructure have made app-based finance mainstream. As these platforms scale their consumer loan offerings, overall loan volumes in the personal segment are poised to grow, particularly among urban and semi-urban customers who are already comfortable transacting online. For borrowers, the immediate appeal lies in faster approvals, simplified documentation and the ability to align credit with specific purchases, which can make personal finance feel more transparent and controllable.
Regulators and policymakers, however, will need to weigh the benefits of expanded credit access against the risks of over-indebtedness and potential regulatory arbitrage between banks and non-bank digital lenders. The Reuters reporting points to Amazon and Flipkart operating as non-bank players that still must navigate India’s evolving rules on digital lending, data privacy and consumer protection, which could tighten as their loan books grow. Any new guidelines on capital buffers, disclosure standards or algorithmic transparency would not only shape how these e-commerce firms structure their products but could also reset compliance expectations for the entire non-bank lending ecosystem, ultimately influencing how affordable and accessible personal financing becomes for Indian consumers.
