By catering to the different financial needs of the banks’ excluded clients, NBFCs (Non Banking Financial Companies) plays a vital role in encouraging inclusive growth in the Country. In addition, NBFCs frequently take the lead in delivering new financial services to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which are best suited to their needs.
NBFCs is an essential pillar in the growth of a country’s economy by boosting the transportation, job creation, wealth building, bank lending in rural areas, and offering help to financially disadvantaged people.
The number of NBFCs are increasing immensely in the last few years since venture capital companies, retail, and industrial companies have entered the lending business apart from banks known as NBFCs have contributed significantly to the success of numerous businesses.
NBFCs not only helping in the lending business but also strengthen the space of wealth management, insurance, and payments. One such NBFC is SVCL (S V Creditline Limited), that is promoting businesses and entrepreneurs with relevant financial tools and enables them to re-engineer and uplift their economic status eventually.
S V Creditline Limited (SVCL) is one of the India’s largest and most respected Non-Banking Financial Company. Established in 2010, SVCL’s vision is to uplift “entrepreneurial poor” through giving them easy access to credit which is otherwise scarcely available.
Visionary Goal
The objective of SVCL is to promote entrepreneurs with relevant financial tools enabling them to re-engineer and uplift their financial status eventually.
Since its foundation, SVCL has diversified rapidly, opened branches across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, and has further expanded to areas of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Jharkhand.
SVCL’s value proposition has always been customer-centric with simplified and efficient processes, transparent pricing structures, and diversified option plans. The Company’s set-ups are conveniently located and easily accessible for customers who are reached out by its trained field staff.
The on-ground team is essential for this to drive the objectives at the grassroots level and provide much-needed comfort to customers.
Taking Onus as CEO of SV Creditline
Mr. Partha Sengupta, an inspiring and visionary leader, serves as Chief Executive Officer of S V Creditline Limited. He holds more than 23 years of diverse C-Suite experience across e-commerce, Banking, Retail Assets, and Microfinance Industries at the PAN-India level.
He joined SVCL amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on this segment of the customer was vast and visible. The priority was to give immediate relief and support, so that they don’t fall apart in their personal and credit needs.
After normalcy of this situation, the focus was on innovative product range to comprehend the needs of the customer into financial inclusion.
A customer-centric approach through call center skilling classes improved the ability to earn more make financially self-sufficient business , sustain expansion by which AUM has moved from Rs. 426. Cr in June 2021 to Rs. 570 Cr. in January 2022 and expects to reach Rs. 850.Cr by March 2022.
The Company recently started its operation in the parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as new expansion and has opened 38 new branches from June 2021.
Aprat from existing Business Correspondent Partners, the Company has also welcomed few Business Correspondent Partners (BC Partners) like IDBI Bank, DCB Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank Limited, and Yes Bank Ltd.
The company is moving towards end-to-end digitising with a completely paperless operation wherein all documents will be secured digitally. With digitalization, we expect better transparency, faster reporting, compliance orientation, and convenience to reach the customer.
Vanquishing the Hardships
The resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic in India which has significantly impacted the economy specifically NBFCs, RBI announced certain reguatory measures to mitigate the burden of debt servicing and to ensure the continuity of viable businesses which includes Moratorium for all existing NBFCs’ clients. Pursuant to such meansure, the Management of the Company decided to grant moratorium to all Business Correspondent clients.
Consequent to which there was an incremental change in the existing EMIs, whereby the client continued to pay EMIs as per the schedule which triggered the increase in Areares .
SVCL management decided to convince/educate clients for the timely payments availing Moratorium, there were some delays in such collections, but gradually recovery rate has been reached 115% to 120%.
The economy was impacted by COVID-19 wave in March 2020 and then in the second wave in April 2021. Due to the lockdown in many parts of the Country, MFI sector was again severely affected as there was low mobility of its collections field force. Further, JLG discipline was impacted March 2020 till August 2020.
Despite lockdown and movement restrictions, all the branches of SVCL were open giving healthy collection and confidence among the customers. The Company also distributed free medicine to clients in multiple locations.
Many initiatives were taken by the Company such as tele-medical support and medical camps to provide immediate help and support to villages and customers. Further SVCL’s core management team implemented COVID Policy under which a free medical kit was sent to the employee to help them with the essential medical assistance. If any employee evaluated COVID positive, then financial assistance of Rs. 25,000 given upfront along with paid leaves.
- SVCL arranged a COVID Vaccination camp for its employees and their relatives
- Special drive for Branch cleanliness and hygiene
- Free tele-consultation with the doctor is available for employees and their families
Revolutionizing the Non-Banking Financial Space
With the rapid change in technology, the sector must adopt Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which will help predict data behaviours without human intervention. Using algorithms, detecting transactional frauds would be much easier by analysing millions of data points that tend to go unnoticed by humans.
Analysing customer behaviour would be much more convenient, and the creditworthiness of that respective customer can be easily determined. This will also help in understanding business dynamics today and are ahead of the curve to better respond to the ever-changing business scenarios.
One of the notable example of AI-led software is Chatbots which is extremely convenient to serve customer queries quickly and drastically cut down the lead time.
Precious Words
Financial space is highly vulnerable and susceptible to risks and fraud. This is further aggravated by changing micro and macro-economic dynamics of the country.
But with all its risks associated with this sector, it has given a huge opportunity for budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the Non-Banking Financial Space. This is mainly because of the huge unbanked population of the country.
Mr. Partha Sengupta’s recommendations to these are:
- Process: With the robust process, implementing these processes in letter and spirit will be key for making the new enterprise a profitable and scalable model.
- System: These processes should not be personally driven but should be system driven. Thus, there should not be people dependence but should be system dependence
- Internal control: Financial space being highly vulnerable and susceptible to risks and fraud a strong internal control right from customer identification to closure is essential
- Triple bottom line: People need to move from double bottom line P&L to triple bottom line P&L where the third bottom line should be the human resource capital. Institutions need to invest in firstly, identifying and attracting human resources with the right skill sets, secondly training them, and thirdly retaining them.
- Delicate touch and Technology: Nothing can replace delicate touch, but these entrepreneurs should use the technology without diluting the delicate touch. And last but not the least, use of Artificial Intelligence.
The Journey Ahead
SVCL has now formalized a new strategy of achieving an AUM of Rs. 850 Crores by March 2022 by pushing the managed portfolio. With new BC partnership arrangements, the ratio of the managed portfolio as per strategy from 50% of the AUM to a maximum of 70% of the AUM of the company.
Based on the continued financial support of the promoter shareholders and other funding and expansion plans, the management is confident that the company will achieve the initial levels soon. During the period, the company has also managed to get some new sanctions from banks/financial institutions which will fuel the growth of the company in the upcoming years.
