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Tractor & Rural Finance
Gold Jewellery Business Lending – Episode 10 An Empirical Examination of Risk Through Bank and Borrower Behaviour Stories from the Balance Sheet: What gold loan portfolios reveal when you stop reading NPAs and start reading continuity. 1. Why Read Gold Lending…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
An Empirical Examination of Risk Through Bank and Borrower Behaviour JEWELLERY BUSINESS SERIES - Episode 9 Across Indian banks, gold jewellery loans typically form just 2–10% of total advances , yet contribute 15–35% of incremental retail credit growth during…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Jewellery Business Series – Episode 3: Understanding the Jewellery Ecosystem If Episode 1 followed gold from bar to ornament, and Episode 2 dismantled the myth of the “cash business,” then Episodes 3 and 4 do something even more fundamental: They answer who is…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Policy Vs Practice Series Introduction When RBI first introduced co-lending, the promise was simple — leverage the NBFC’s reach with the bank’s cost of funds. Two models emerged: Mode 1: Bank and NBFC co-lend from day one. Mode 2: NBFC originates, books the lo…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
– When Status Wore a Smile and We Stood Up The Arrival He stepped out of a white Skoda Rapid with a red beacon flashing discreetly — just enough to turn heads, not enough to draw suspicion. Pressed whites. A laminated badge with the Ashoka emblem. A Delhi-numb…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
(Based on true incidents from North Chennai) There’s something unnerving about silence after violation. No shattering glass. No barking dog. No scream. Just… absence. Sharda sat still on the edge of her bed, her hands shaking slightly as she stared at the open…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally Written on Jun 21, 2018 "Vivek ! we are in the business of secured funding" announced a classmate of mine who worked for a NBFC. A few of us met for tea, and it was normal to start off a thought trail as many interesting facets of our work come fort…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Written Originally on Jan 7, 2018 One of the most fascinating aspects of the tractor is the way in which power gets transmitted effectively from the front of the tractor to the rear end. In the search of understanding the same, spent quite some time visiting U…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally written on Nov 16, 2017 Practically every retail finance company out there is carving out “exclusivity” image which signifies customer friendliness. The “Experience” of buying or availing credit has been key. While some like the State Bank of Travan…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Written Originally on June 12, 2017 “ What is Risk ? Can you define it for me ? “ was the question asked by a highly experienced panelist, to a boy with probably 1/4th his experience. As the boy went about beating around the bush, in an attempt to impress the…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally written on May 21, 2017 During one of our tea session discussions, one of my team mates asked " We have multiple functions attached to a Retail Loan - Sales/Business, Credit/ Underwriting, Policy Drafting, Product Management, Operations, Collections…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally written on May 27, 2017 Questions that are frequently asked, with specific regard to Audit / Internal Check / Hindsighting - call it what you may, are very many. Yet the ones that don't get addressed properly and remain very critical are : How do we…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally written on May 1, 2017 Scene was a Board Room, and a new person inducted into the senior management was being introduced. His first interaction was with the Policy & Compliance team. He shot a question to the team - " How do we value Used Tractors ?…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally Written on May 9, 2017 One of the first aspects I was taught to look at in a Tractor, was ........... Guess what - Not Engine, HP, Pulling Capacity, Use, Condition, Model popularity etc. It was about deducing information from mere look at the Tracto…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally written on April 16, 2017 I sat dazed after one of my training sessions. An enthusiast in class had asked me question, " Are you worried about the money lent coming back (as in being repaid) or how we (as financiers ) process each application ? " In…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Originally Written on April 1, 2017 - Reproduced as is, and may represent some facts relevant to those times. Yet the concepts are still strong and valid. One of the hot topics that gets discussed when many fellow colleagues handling similar portfolios meet is…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
…erations, Credit or Collections Process, all have its genesis from information that is declared by the borrower, in the Rural Finance perspective. Declared information has to be validated on best effort wherein reasonable care or reasonable investigation has to be done by the financ…Read in full
Credit & Underwriting
…eparate underwriting faction. The hypothesis : “Credit Assessment / Underwriting as a process is a drain / bane, in the RURAL FINANCE background. “ Instead of straightaway being judgemental, I stepped back to quietly recalling (a) Key Assumptions / Preparatory to Credit Assessments…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Some of my recent experiences, with regard to visits to colleges and campuses as part of various initiatives, have aided in active engagement with students, and understanding their requirements and views. Let us take a closer view of students from Agricultural…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Used Tractor valuation has always been a challenge. The attempt is constantly to metricize, templatize and simplify the valuation process. They buyer and seller need to conclusively arrive at a value. Today, majority of us use one of the following methods to b…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Pongal, this year has been special. It is a much more enlightening year. From the times of the "Jallikattu" or "Bull Fight", over a year back, there have been different representations of the Bull Fight, which was very convincingly put forth as part of a thesi…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
A recent chance meeting at an Agri University, led a group of us discussing very broadly on the systems orientation / adapting of an algorithm based approach in Agri Business Management. It was very interesting to note , of trends, where in many farmers used t…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
“Navarathri” is one of most fertile marketing and sales period for Tractors and Farm Equipments in the country. In tamilnadu, we celebrate this period through “Golu”, exhibition of dolls and toy models depicting real life scenarios. Meant to be socializing tim…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
It was a frenzied Monday morning, towards the month end. As I quickly ran through the figures. So what is surprising here ? The average usance / work based growth is about 5-6%, and a stretch to about 8%. So manufacturers who are typically between 8 – 11 % wil…Read in full
Leadership & Reflection
Ever wondered why the harvesters from every manufacturer looked almost similar. Ever wondered why a cultivator or a cage wheel looked the same irrespective of the manufacturer ? In early days, the implement manufacturer did not matter. The category, class and…Read in full
Credit & Underwriting
In a recent ACFE conference, I was lucky to hear Mr. Muralidharan, Co-Founder, Hethi, talk of "disruptive change" in a new and novel way. He was mentioning that if we could clone our knowledge / experiences into bots making ourselves redundant, and look beyond…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…is journaled here is only experiences which have been internalized and structured. This would help any person entering Rural Finance, in getting their perspectives and points of Actionable etched out clearly. At the same time, I run my own path, seeking answers to many other questi…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
AGNA - Awareness / Red Flags " The Intuition" Facial expressions and show of emotions are by far the best indicators of intentions. Many a time these are quick, short or even subtle. Yet the trained eye is able to capture these. Just like finger print types, w…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…it possible to detect intentions / frauds / triggers / tell-tale signs at the time of Field Investigation itself in any Rural Finance Proposal ? It was then that I spoke to him about the NAVA CHAKRAS of Rural Financing ( 9 Chakras / Wheels of Rural Financing ). He was so glad and ha…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
Continued from Part 1.... ANAHADHA - Information Eliciting " The Immunity System" Information about the Customer builds better health in the Customer - Financier Relationship. Ultimately, irrespective of use, the intention forming happens in this CHAKRA. Inten…Read in full
Credit & Underwriting
I was quite influenced by a training on Fraud Detection and Prevention recently, where a point came up about "Triggers" losing relevance with time. This was when the Trainer pointed to the underlying principle rather than Trigger in itself. The Triggers change…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Continued..... from Part 1.. ..highlights of a talk on "Fraud Prevention in Farm Equipment Financing" Observation 3 - Know your domain I've read about Luca Pacioli's Quote, which I shall use slightly differently - "He who does business without knowing all abou…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Let’s start this with a positive story – a business oppurtunity wise story and then we can correlate it to other scenarios One financier received a case where the customer had quote Lemon to be the crop. The business team had seen a huge oppurtunity… yet the c…Read in full
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
At a recent gathering, I was asked to speak on " Fraud Prevention in Farm Equipment Financing ", and this was more of an impromptu talk with little time to prepare. Yet, I gathered and covered the talk in points of Observation, in the background of Rural and F…Read in full