The credit company Japan's Credit Saison is achieving success in India and plans to expand its loan portfolio.

Mumbai: The Japanese company Credit Saison plans to leverage unique identification and data infrastructure in India to expand its credit operations locally, building on its initial successes after entering the third-largest economic market in Asia during the pandemic. This non-banking financial organization has formed a credit portfolio worth 12,000 crore rupees, providing loans to individuals, small and medium enterprises, as well as wholesale lending to other financial institutions.

Goals and new products

Preshya Paragash, the CEO of Credit Saison India, noted that the company intends to establish new partnerships and introduce new financial products, such as loans against property (LAP) and loans for small businesses, expecting growth of 30-40% in India. Approximately 52% of the total loan portfolio of 12,000 crore consists of loans obtained through the co-lending model. The company's active network includes 25 co-lending partners, including fintech companies like Cred, KreditBee, PaisaBazaar, Groww, and Airtel Digital. In addition to co-lending, some of these companies also attract loans for Credit Saison for a fee, which are guaranteed by the company itself.

Company strategy

Kosuke Mori, head of the global business division of the Japanese parent company, emphasized that India occupies the most important niche for the company, and its strategy is also applied in other emerging markets such as Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia.“India has become our 'Eureka' moment and is the best country due to its market potential and credit ecosystem, including systems like Aadhaar, UPI, and NACH, account aggregators, and developed credit bureaus.

Business diversification

Credit Saison, supported by major Japanese and international institutional investors, is involved in various business sectors, including asset management, real estate, insurance, and life services, where digital lending is more prevalent in emerging markets. According to Paragash,70% of the company's credit portfolio consists of consumer loans, and now further diversification is planned.

New credit offers

“We have a unique combination of a reliable parent company with an AAA credit rating and a leadership approach in fintech, which has shown excellent results.”We recently started offering significant business loans of 2.5 million rupees, as well as small business loans of 500,000 rupees. Currently, almost our entire portfolio consists of unsecured loans, and we are planning to begin offering secured loans backed by real estate with a loan amount of around 3.5 million rupees.

Expansion of branches

The company, initially appearing as a purely digital lender, has already opened 45 branches for processing applications for large loans and expects to increase their number to 75 by the end of the current financial year, mainly in third and fourth-tier cities. With a capital adequacy ratio of over 30% and gross non-interest assets at 0.85% as of the end of March 2024, Paragash is confident that their early risk assessment system, fine-tuned over the past four years, will continue to operate effectively in the future.