Making the Indian woman dream come true: Muthoot Microfinance

Selected as Asia’s  Most Promising Brands, 2019, MUTHOOT MICROFIN LIMITED is one of the leading micro-finance institutions focused on providing micro-loans to women customers with a focus on rural regions of India.

Industry: MICROFINANCE

The fifth largest NBFC-MFI in India in terms of gross loan portfolio, as of March 31, 2018, according to CRISIL Research. It has 1.2 million active borrowers, who are served by our 467 branches across 168 districts in 16 states and union territories in India, as of March 31, 2018. 

MUTHOOT MICROFIN LIMITED is a part of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, which is one of the leading business conglomerates in South India, with presence across financial services, automotive, hospitality, real estate, healthcare, information technology, precious metals and alternate energy sectors. It believes that the relationship with the Muthoot Pappachan Group provides  a strong brand recall and continues to derive significant marketing and operational benefits from the relationship. 

Annual Turnover (2017-2018): Rs 451,14,31,389/-

Recent Financial achievements:

1. Mergers & Acquisitions:

2. Alliances:

3. Joint Ventures:

4. Technology transfer:

5. Private Equity/Venture funds investment: Raised ₹1 billion private equity investment from Creation Investments India LLC

In Conversation with Sadaf Sayeed, CEO, Muthoot Microfin Limited

What is your brand proposition

VISION

To be the most successful microfinance company providing need based financial services to the needy and the unserved, and to contribute to the society and serve all stakeholders alike.

MISSION

To be among the top 3 microfinance companies in India by 2020, managing the best portfolio with presence in all possible corners of the country.

What is the brand image that the company wants to portray to its target group?

Our wide range of lending products are aimed at catering to the life-cycle needs of rural households. We provide loans for income generating purposes to women entrepreneurs living in rural areas. Our loan products comprise of (i) group loans for livelihood solutions such as income generating loans and dairy loans, as well as individual loans such as sewing machine loans; (ii) life betterment solutions including emergency loans, mobile phones loans, solar lantern loans, solar fan and education loans; and (iii) health and hygiene loans such as water purifier loans and induction stove loans. We have adopted a joint liability group model which caters exclusively to women in lower income households and is premised on the fact that if such individuals are given access to credit, they will be able to identify new opportunities and supplement and grow their existing income. We believe that the history of the Muthoot Pappachan Group in working with customers in the bottom of the economic pyramid, helps us better address needs of women in rural households and design lending products to cater to their requirements.

We believe that all the aspects of the brand image should resonate with the target audience, letting them know how their quality of life could benefit from connecting with our business. With our brand image, our customers should understand and want the emotional connection and tangible benefits that differentiates the company from other competitors. Apart from attracting ideal clients, the brand image company put forward also gives our employees direction and motivation to embrace company’s values and priorities as their own.

What according to you are the five competitive brands in the country and in Asia in your category?

Microfinance is a still an emerging and growing sector in developing countries.

CreditAccess Grameen, Satin Creditcare Network, Spandana and Asirvad are some of the competitors in the country. Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, Rakyat Bank of Indonesia, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, TYM (Tinh Thoung Microfinance) of Vietnam and ASA Philippines are major players in Asian market.

According to you what is the consumer perception of your brand?

We are part of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, which is one of the leading business conglomerates in India, with presence across financial services, automotive, hospitality, real estate, healthcare, information technology, precious metals and alternate energy sectors. We believe that our relationship with the Muthoot Pappachan Group provides us with a strong brand recall and we continue to derive significant marketing and operational benefits from our relationship.

The Muthoot Pappachan Group, with a reputation that has been shaped over decades with high quality practices, total customer satisfaction and steady growth in the field of business, is a legacy built on God-given values of trust, truth, transparency and tradition and has become one of the top business houses today.

On the above grounds and the trust, the brand has built over decades of doing business with common man, Muthoot Microfin enjoys enormous goodwill. Our customers have faith in our vision and mission, this has reflected in the growing client acquisition and business of our company.

6. In the past 12 months what branding and marketing activities has been undertaken by your company to enhance the visibility, recall and acceptability of the brand?

We are part of the Muthoot Pappachan Group, which is one of the leading business conglomerates in South India, with presence across financial services, automotive, hospitality, real estate, healthcare, information technology, precious metals and alternate energy sectors. We believe that our relationship with the Muthoot Pappachan Group provides us with a strong brand recall and we continue to derive significant marketing and operational benefits from our relationship. We also believe there are significant synergies between the financial services business of the Group, and our micro-finance business.

Major campaigns: Blue Soch campaign with Vidya Balan | Muthoot Blue League of Dreams – gave wings to the passion for Cricket in the gullies of India | Regular BTL activities |

What innovative measures the brand has taken to reach consumer digitally?

Muthoot Microfin introduced Aadhar based KYC updation and biometric credit check & approval system in its microfinance loan processing IT infrastructure. This advanced and efficient use of technology helped the company reduce cost, improve efficiency and increase productivity.

The introduction of the system enabled better use of technology to support organizational goals and objectives of the institution. With this new technological integration, the customers’ KYC will be updated by linking it to Aadhar – this is enabled by scanning the iris of customers with digital tabs used by the Relationship Officers. The integrated credit check system in the tab will also check the credit worthiness of the customers with credit bureau agencies in a fraction of minute.

The whole system will cut a 2 days process into few minutes timeline. With this system, the customer can also know her loan eligibility instantly. Muthoot Microfin has pioneered in many innovations in the microfinance industry with the help of technology and human resource. As an impact of the innovations, the process and system have become more transparent.

The Brand Strength

We are one of the leading micro-finance institutions focused on providing micro-loans to women customers with a focus on rural regions of India. We are the fifth largest NBFC-MFI in India in terms of gross loan portfolio, as of March 31, 2018, according to CRISIL Research. We have 1.2 million active borrowers, who are served by our 467 branches across 168 districts in 16 states and union territories in India, as of March 31, 2018. Our gross loan portfolio was ₹29,202.97 million, while our gross loan portfolio in South India was ₹24,856.50 million, our gross loan portfolio was serviced by 5,583 employees, as of March 31, 2018. We believe that our position amongst the leading NBFC-MFIs in the microfinance sector enhances our reputation and credibility with our borrowers, lenders and other stakeholders. We believe that we derive numerous benefits from our leadership position, including our ability to secure capital at competitive costs, recruit and retain skilled employees, retain existing borrowers, add new borrowers, expand into new regions and grow our portfolio of new products which we introduce from time to time.

We have built our distribution platform with an emphasis on under-served rural markets with growth potential, in order to ensure ease of access to village level borrowers and rural households. As of March 31, 2018, we employed 4,639 branch managers, credit officers and relationship officers. We believe that our branch and center network in rural markets results in significant competitive advantages, particularly by giving us the capability to offer a variety of financial products in areas where we believe financial services penetration is limited. Our branch and center network also assists us in managing disbursement and collection in an efficient manner and provides local knowledge and know-how, which we believe is critical to the success of our operations.

Muthoot Microfin is a customer focused company passionate about empowering people from the bottom of the pyramid to realize their dreams. MML financial products are aimed at catering to the life-cycle needs of rural households and has established standards and systems that work smoothly and transparently for clients and the company as well. Our brand identity possesses an unwavering commitment to the cause of women empowerment and financial inclusion.

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