Raghuvir Gakhar, The CEO of P.C. Financial Services Pvt Ltd connected with The Global Hues to share the company’s progress.

P.C. Financial Services Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary falling under the umbrella of Opera group, which is registered in Nasdaq with Opera’s head office in Oslo, Norway. In India, through its digital lending application CashBean, PCF disburses unsecured cash loans, using its internal customer verification process, quickly and effectively. P.C. Financial is currently one of the biggest cash digital lenders in India and has seen tremendous growth owing to the quality of its service and reputation within the customer base.

While initially, PCF had various applications deployed in the market focusing on different consumer needs ranging from very-short term loans, buy-now-pay-later, etc, due to the adversities of COVID19 and subsequent lockdowns the current focus is only on the cash disbursement application of the company named as CashBean. Through 2021, PCF expects the company’s growth to reignite phenomenally.

Differentiating Factors

P.C. Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. (“PCF”) has been one of the most effective ways for people of India to get access to unsecured credit at the time of their most need. Through its application CashBean, PCF supports its customer base by extending a helping hand to the low and middle-income category Indians providing a swift and ease the loan application process. The company’s transparent handling of loans is further trust-building via which the applicant is aware of charges every step of the way. This system is strictly operated in adherence to the guidelines set by the RBI.

“We are the biggest and the swiftest digital loan disbursement system in India,” said Raghuvir Gakhar.

With only some basic information and zero documentation PCF can provide loans of up to Rs 60,000 to applicants directly into their accounts. In comparison to the competition, the company’s registration process is not a quagmire of verifications and at times out TAT is as low as 20 mins.

The Clientele

“We are proud to serve a customer base that has been perpetually ignored by the traditional financial system,” said Raghuvir Gakhar.

PCF’s client base consists of young, 22-35 aged low to middle-income professionals and small business owners who rarely get their requisite credit and therefore have to borrow from unconventional means such as family, friends, or loan sharks. This forces them to go against their pride and the market rates in doing so. With the help of CashBean, customers can get regular credit needs hassle-free. PCF’s proprietary digital lending system acts as a helping hand for the customers which is both swift and secure to provide loans.

The company also ensures that the customer is fully aware of all the associated costs and fees while borrowing a loan with a set and defined repayment plan. Transparency does build credibility and reinforces the CashBean brand as a favorite destination for digital lending. This indicates swift loan disbursement and an attentive and highly responsive customer service team entertaining all customer issues and queries. This trust led the company to ensure 1 crore disbursement enabled through CashBean with the prospect of further growth in the future.

Impacts of Covid-19 in the BFSI space

COVID has been a major blow to the growth of BFSI and digital lending specifically. Due to the lockdowns both disbursement and repayment have seen a sharp decline and this called for a soft-handed approach to the market. During this period PCF provided loan moratoriums by the direction of the authorities and at the same time provided interest and penalty relief to those who were able to approach them with genuine repayment issues.

“Our customer service team was on constant standby for the overflow of calls and complaints and we have been able to resolve 99 percent of all COVID-related issues for our customers,” said Raghuvir. But COVID’s impact continues as a lot of digital lenders have seen collections issues owing to people losing their jobs. PCF is constantly working with all customers to ease the repayment process for them.

Strategies to improve operational efficiency and enhance the customer experience

In Raghuvir’s opinion, the company’s operational efficiency can be improved by following strategies:

To instill the culture of “customer first” approach in all the departments.
To keep looking out for more latest technologies like AI/ML backed Customer service tool/ operations management.
Research investment on best practices being followed in our industry as well as other industries.

Vision and Future prospects

The company aims to be the most preferred and trusted financial institution in India, lifting the income and living standards, excelling in customer service through committed, caring, and empowered employees.

Key technology trends shaping the BFSI segment

“We are extremely excited about the way that technology is paving for the digital lending and financial sector as a whole. Especially with something like Blockchain we expect a much stronger customer verification process along with quicker loan disbursements. This will also allow for the execution of smart contracts between the borrower and lender leading to fantastic levels of transparency,” said Raghuvir Gakhar.

The company is expecting to see completely new lending products coming to the market tied together through a Blockchain network in the next 3-5 years. The company is planning on coming up with products for the consumer finance sector, where IoT will be able to reinforce customer repay-ability along with providing the financing company with real-time information about the health of the asset under finance. AI too will play a transformational role in creating customer analysis based on big data collation and create an ongoing advisory for lending companies by blending several possible vectors.

“AI has already made incredible changes within the finance space and we feel that as it grows it will also bring industries together into deeper symbiotic relationships with one another,” explained Raghuvir Gakhar.

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