Although officials acknowledge the rising interest rate environment is a tough challenge, consumer finance provider Home Credit Philippines is confident of adding some 700,000 more clients this year and lift its customer base to 10 million from more or less 9.3 million at the moment.
This developed as the company marked its 10th year of operations with a briefing at the SEDA Hotel in Taguig City where its officials also bared their apprehension over the rising incidence of mobile phone scams.
Interest charges indicated by the policy rate of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) of 6 percent at present represents a 15-year high that could ultimately tell on the appetite of consumers to borrow money and fulfill a need, such as the purchase of a mobile phone or bike.
Scams such as those commonly encountered in mobile phone messages, on the other hand, tend to dampen consumer credit activities especially when such are allowed to persist unchallenged by state regulators.
But David Minol, Home Credit Philippines CEO, is sanguine about credit activities and expansion in the country and has positioned the enterprise to allow more Filipinos to access more financial solutions through its expanded range of product options.
“Our goal of a financially empowered Philippines comes true every year, one customer at a time. In our 10 years of service in the country, we aim to empower 10 million customers by the end of 2023 and continue to serve more Filipinos in the years to come. More than delivering innovative and accessible financial services, we celebrate the relationships we have built with our stakeholders and customers over the past decade, and this we choose to continue above and beyond,” Minol said.
Home Credit is flooded with 200,000 loan applications each month and has thus far successfully processed 1.9 million in large part due to competent risk management under Peter Lukosz who is chief credit risk management officer.
Filipinos take out mobile phones and laptops on credit from the enterprise and are the most popular items in Home Credit’s menu of offerings.
Various home appliance loans are popular as well, particularly air-conditioning units as the season moves from wet to dry in the Philippines, according to Home Credit officials.
The business also extends education loans to finance the tuition requirement of customers, cash loans for the temporarily illiquid and even the birthday bash of a young lass looking to impress her neighbors, officials said.
Minol said the loans typically involving 14,000 to 15,000 per borrower are so effectively managed such that their non-performing loans, without disclosing the actual number, “are on par with the banks’ NPLs.”
“We extend home loans only to those who can pay. That is an important element in our performance as a consumer finance” company, Minol said.
