About our Company

Paras Capfin Pvt. Ltd. (Paras Capfin) commenced its operations in April 2008 in Mumbai and has expanded to Pune and Ahmednagar. Paras Capfin uses both the Group lending and Individual lending methodology in serving its clients and lends solely to the self employed/entrepreneurs in Urban and Semi-Urban environments.

Since inception, the company has put in place robust systems and has initiated a number of ongoing employee capacity building efforts.

Mission & Vision

Our mission is to empower the customer segment to move up the ladder in a systematic manner.  What works well for the customer in this segment, is that he or she has access to funding using the financial power and creditworthiness of the group; where each member of the group provide guarantee to one another. The group therefore allows support  of individuals not hitherto being able to access finance, with a platform to avail finance, especially those who do not have access in an already underserved market. The intention is to make individuals of the group financially able to make investments and use such funding for working capital in this manner.
At Paras we plan to consciously work with this segment, often providing multiple rounds of financing by encouraging customers to form  groups ; thereby enabling them to have the ability to achieve financial independence and set up a viable business proposition.

During our funding to this segment, we also impart a Financial Literacy program to our customer base. This enables them to make themselves self reliant and work towards a better future. As a pro-active measure Paras also provides larger group loans (larger share to individual members) to high-performing groups. There is a conscious effort to reduce the burden of group members, who are then free to contribute their repayment through collection points. Ultimately the members of these smaller groups graduate to acting as Individual borrowers, not only capable of borrowing and repaying to Paras but also to other financial institutions as well. Here we propose other options and savings to customers to encourage them by opening bank accounts and helping to operate them.

The Company’s Fair Trade Practice Codes and Guidelines are as follows :

Applications for loans and their processing:

a) The application form helps capture necessary information related to the customer, such as name, age, address, education, occupation and income details and other valuable details. The form includes personal and professional details of the customer. Since the company provides loans largely to members of the Group lending scheme, signatures of each member are obtained on individual forms. The customer is asked to provide certain documents not mentioned in the application form, but necessary for enhancing process of loan disbursement. The amount and purpose of loan required by the customer is mentioned in the form.

b) All documentation is completed before the loan is sanctioned. The company verifies the documents submitted by customers to negate fraud and duplication by internally designed procedures. Those who do not fulfil the fraud check are rejected immediately, whilst those who pass the fraud check are approved, and loan sanctioned within a specified period being 7-10 days.

Loan appraisal and terms/ conditions:

All terms and conditions related to the loan are explained to the customer. The interest rate, repayment schedule and procedure are also explained in detail. The processing fee is clearly mentioned to the customer and is collected at the time of loan disbursement, also a repayment schedule is given to the customers, they sign a mutual agreement stating their liability for each other, further signatures are taken on demand promissory notes stating the date, amount received by the customer and the final amount to be returned by him/her. In the event of the customer being illiterate, care is taken that the terms and conditions are explained to him or her and there is documentation to support that he/she had understood the same.

Disbursement of loans including changes in terms and conditions:

a.If there are any changes in the terms and conditions including repayment schedule, interest rates, service charges and prepayment charges, the same is conveyed immediately to the customer and it is ensured that any of these changes are given effect only prospectively. If a loan has been rejected, the company’s field officers convey the message directly to the customer.

b.At the time of disbursement of loan, customers are informed and explained the various facilities available to them and the repayment schedule, if the customer wants to clear his dues before the tenure, he must make payments up to a certain period without any defaults.

c.The company today provides unsecured loans on the basis of Group lending scheme, wherein the members take liability of the group. In the future the company may decide to provide unsecured individual loans. If the company decides to provide secured loans, the securities taken from the customer will be released once all dues are collected.

General:

a. The company’s field officers meet the customers weekly and get basic information and updates on their financial standing. The officers are also in touch with those customers who have cleared their dues as they could be prospective clients for an additional loan, after checking for any change in financial conditions.

b.Owing to the Joint Liability Group system i.e. all members jointly take liability of the group, therefore transfer of funds is not possible to any external party, even on request of the customers.

c. The company follows its internally designed customer friendly Recovery Policy, The Policy has been formulated to ensure that measures taken are within the legal and regulatory framework and the customers are not harassed. It maintains decency and decorum during the visit to the clients place for collection of dues, and avoids inappropriate times such as grief in the family. Threats, foul language and violence are strictly avoided.

d. Grievances and queries of customers are solved by senior personnel. Post loan disbursal, customer complaints if any are attended to by senior personnel at the concerned branch itself, higher authority is informed if the need so arise.

e. In case of any complaint regarding the above, please email us on veer@parascapfin.com

Our Team

Corporate Governance - Practice

Paras believes in practicing corporate governance that results in meeting the stakeholders’ objectives,  attracting and retaining talent that is best suited for the company, providing adequately secure operating atmosphere that enhances productivity and finally managing and mitigating the risks involved in operations and enhancing the reputation of the company.

Board of Directors

P.Veeraraghavan
A Chartered Accountant, has been in the field of Retail finance for last 18 years mainly providing services to Multinational Banks and Financial Institutions. He has varied experience in the field of Credit Underwriting, Credit Processing and Credit Verification. He has also undertaken a large number of due-diligence assignments on NBFCs and Banks especially their loan portfolios, thus enabling Banks and Financial institutions to procure retail loan portfolios by way of securitization.

Vijit Baruah – Independent Director
Vijit Baruah is a Director in a boutique consultancy firm, managing a number of verticals in the financial services domain. He has varied experience in the banking and finance sector and is a specialist in areas as diverse and complex as deal management, product management, structuring, process and distribution. 

As the Deal Management & Strategic Planning Head for Citigroup, Vijit was responsible for planning new strategies and taking care of new businesses including M&A activities for the group companies as well as finance company integration, group company sale and purchase of independently rated portfolios.

In his earlier assignment, he took charge of the Alternate distribution channels for all Citigroup entities (for Citibank as well as CitiFinancial and Eserve) and consulted on running of a call centre in Tokyo, Japan and also took over as Insurance Distribution Head for CitiFinancial India in October 2003, where he set up retail insurance in CitiFinancial. He also consulted for Philippines, Thailand and Korea on their Insurance distribution businesses.

Prior to handling new businesses, Vijit was heading the relationship banking in the south, providing asset and liability facilities to middle market customer & relationships of Citibank viz. ME loans, Vendor loans, Discounting of Rentals, Property loans & SRTO after a stint in the Auto finance division and heading the collections team in Chennai for all retail portfolios of Citibank

Liston Lewis
Liston Lewis is a partner at  Veeraraghavan & Co . He is a Chartered Accountant and has rich experience in retail finance in the areas of Credit Underwriting, Credit Processing and Credit Verification. Liston joined Paras Capfin Company Private Limited as a Director in the year 2008.

Management Team

The company has a small but decidicated management team and over time has nurtured talent to meet with the changing market conditions. Our Team of top management comprises of......,

1. P.Veeraraghavan -- Director
2. Nagendra Nashine – Business Head
3. Suresh Gaidadke – Sales Head
4. Kailash Choudhary – Branch Head –Andheri
5. Brijendra Singh – Manager Accounts 

The top management is supported by Mr. Vijit Baruah in devising business strategies, drafting operation manuals and devising new products for the company.

Paras has set up an Advisory Committee with MAS Financial services and the committee is headed by Mr. Mukesh Gandhi the Chairman and Managing Director of Mas Financial Services. Advisory Committee discusses and advises predominantly on matters relating to funding.