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AI & Digital Lending
…perspective comes in. It’s not just another blog. It’s a lens that sharpens your view of complex financial topics like tractor finance, fraud, and AI in lending. Ready to explore? Why Vivek's Unique Perspective Matters in Finance Ever felt like finance talks over your head? Like the…Read in full
AI & Digital Lending
…is was a formal group of professionals who started talking about exploring RURAL MARKETS and discussions meandered into Tractor Finance and how it was a fraudulent business to get into. “Risky” – I could accept. Yet here was a champ out-casting a product I held close to my heart. I di…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
…ateral is only a safety valve, or more of a stop loss measure. Let's look at the stake holders. Let us take the case of tractor finance stakeholders itself. One side it is the dealers and the other it is customers. Both these people have some common patterns. Generally, to explain thi…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
…, has a structure, wherein Sales and Collections are manned by different people for a particular product – let’s say – Tractor Finance. Company B , has a structure, wherein Sales and Collections are vested in the same officer and he would be responsible for both. Whom do you think wo…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 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
Leadership & Reflection
Interesting lessons are learnt in real life sceanarios when you least expect it. The net result is that the lesson so learnt becomes part of you almost permanently. Success in selling or a sale, be it a tractor or a financial product or any product for that ma…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
“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
The “Pre-Owned” vehicles have always been a special segment !! To the world of tractors this is nothing new either. A colleague of mine was exchanging notes with me on the various facets involved in Used / Pre-Owned Tractors. The key link as we discussed, turn…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
THUREEYA / SAHASRAHARA - The overview / Big Picture " The Brain " One of the main challenges in the assessment methodology is – Dissection / eliciting information with the big picture in mind. To understand this better, we take the example of a jigsaw puzzle w…Read in full
Tractor & Rural Finance
A question was posed by a fellow mate from the same finance industry, about the practicality of detecting frauds. He explained himself with an example. A customer was assessed by them, and found fit to be financed. Based on their policies and credit norms, the…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
Credit & Underwriting
…tor accounts for what he has done and does the balancing act." I pleaded ignorance and asked for examples to my line of Tractor Finance. "Ok - let's begin defining contributors - sales, operations, credit, collections, audit teams. A common factor runs through all - productivity. Yet…Read in full