Page 20 - Bullion World Issue 01 Volume 06 January_2026

Bullion World | Volume 6 | Issue 01 | January 2026

The Lender’s Ground Reality:
Speed, Cost, and Practicality

Mr Keyur Shah, CEO, Precious Metals Business,
Muthoot Pappachan Group

“For silver lending to work at scale, purity assessment
at the ground level has to be practical, fast, and cost-
effective. That is the single biggest challenge today.”

Mr Keyur Shah brought a practitioner’s perspective
rooted in decades of gold-loan experience. He
explained how India’s gold-loan ecosystem works
because it is built around speed, simplicity, and buffers.

In gold lending:
• Average ticket sizes are small
• Purity is assessed quickly using touchstone and
acid tests Mr Keyur Shah
• RBI-mandated LTV buffers of up to 25% absorb He also raised concerns around:
minor inaccuracies • Thickness of silver articles, which limits surface
• Branch-level turnaround is often 15–20 minutes testing
Silver, he argued, disrupts this model at every step. • Inconsistent construction, especially in idols and
utensils
He highlighted that most silver ornaments in India are • Lack of familiarity among consumers regarding
not of high purity, often falling in the 60–70% range, silver purity
and sometimes much lower. Traditional gold-testing From his perspective, storage, auctions, and logistics
methods simply do not work for silver, and deploying are manageable. The real risk lies in valuation
XRF machines across thousands of branches is neither confidence at the point of loan disbursal. Unless this is
practical nor immediately cost-effective. solved, lenders will move cautiously despite regulatory
permission.

Technology as an Enabler-With Limits

Mr Rakesh Bhan, MD- Fischer Measurement
Technologies India Private Limited

Mr Rakesh Bhan approached the issue from a
technology and instrumentation standpoint, drawing
on extensive experience with testing systems used
in hallmarking, manufacturing, and precious metals
evaluation.

He explained that gold lending is already moving
toward digital, traceable testing, particularly through
XRF technology, driven by higher gold prices and risk
sensitivity. XRF offers key advantages:

Mr Rakesh Bhan

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