Home Credit expands operations in PH
Zdenek Jankovsky
Given its rapidly growing business here in the country, consumer finance provider Home Credit Philippines (HCPH) recently announced its plan to invest in retail and corporate expansion over the next two years as it continues to offer its loan services to more of the country’s provinces.
“Home Credit officially became nationwide this year, and we are continuing to open more stores in the 39 provinces we are already present in, while preparing to launch in even more provinces,” says HCPH chief financial officer Zdenek Jankovsky.
HCPH has 3,300 retail partners where customers can avail themselves of the company’s friendly monthly installment loan options for gadgets, appliances, and furniture—no credit card required.
One need only present two valid IDs and, if all goes well, get an approval within 20 to 25 minutes.
The average loan for gadgets starts at P9,000, says Jankovsky, with zero interest.
“The typical loan for gadgets is the zero-interest rate because the producers of the phones and the retailers can attract much more business by being able to provide installment plans. That’s about two-thirds of our new sales,” he adds. “Most of the loans for the gadgets are for six months, some nine months. For the more expensive appliances, it can be as long as two years, because we are also responsible lenders, and we want to make sure that the customer can afford the installment.”
Now catering to almost one and a half million Filipino customers, 70 to 80 percent of whom are unbanked, Jankovsky estimates that HCPH will hit its two millionth customer mark by the end of the year. “We are proud to have brought our unique, financially inclusive business model from Prague to… the Philippines. We are particularly happy that we are making an impact here, considering the large unbanked segment,” Jankovsky says, citing data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas stating that 86 percent of Filipino households have no bank account.
HCPIH is part of Prague-based Home Credit B.V. (HCBV), an international consumer finance provider which operates in 11 countries worldwide.
Founded in 1997, the company’s focus is on responsible lending primarily to people with little or no credit history.
As for the local unit’s workforce, Jankovsky says the company expects to have 12,000 employees by the end of 2018. The current number is 8,000, over 5,000 of whom are sales agents; the rest are assigned to HCPH’s call centers and head office.
The company’s newest call center, which has a capacity of 500 seats, was recently opened in Vertis North in Quezon City. The first one is located in Cubao.
“Most of the calls we receive is, ‘Did you get my payment?’” says Jankovsky. “But if someone gets into a hard situation, [they] might ask for a restructuring of the loan. If they proactively communicate with us, then we are open to doing some restructuring to address their issue, rather than chasing them and bringing them to court.”
Aside from growing the workforce and number of store partners—Jankovsky says he sees at least a 50 percent increase in the next two years—the company is also looking into the potential of adding more commodities that can be financed through its services, such as flight tickets for domestic travel.
