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MUMBAI: Mumbai: Fullerton India Credit Company Limited, a leading Non-Banking Finance Company, bagged the gold award in the ‘Last Mile Distribution / Channel Development Initiative of the Year’ category at the 10th Annual Flame Awards 2014, held in Delhi on the 17 January. The award is in recognition of the company’s innovations in last mile distribution in rural India.
Fullerton India’s Rural Finance Business, named Gramshakti, has a strong foothold in seven states of Rural India, with a customer base of over 600,000 rural households. Fullerton India’s Gramshakti network has an enviable reach that covers the last mile between the branch and the end customer in over 30,000 villages, enabling financial inclusion of the under-served and un-served segments of the rural markets. The company has a completely computerized branch network. It is one of the pioneers in adoption of the innovative bio-metric authentication processes for transactions enabled by mobile hand-held devices, thereby enabling the company to provide better and faster customer service with great level of transparency, earning customer trust and confidence.
In addition to its core business of financial services, Fullerton India has also partnered with several companies to promote relevant products like solar lamps, water filters and Eco cook stoves. Using its extensive reach and its 2500-strong team of field officers, Fullerton India promotes these products to its customers, creating awareness and generating interest. More importantly, it enables interested households to adopt these eco-friendly products by providing them a unique Merchandise Loan to acquire these products. From April 2012 to December 2013, Fullerton India financed more than 200,000 solar lanterns, water filters, Eco cook stoves and bicycles. Thus, helping improve the quality of lives and standard of living of nearly 200,000 rural households.
Commenting on getting the award, Ravi Shankar, Executive Vice President & Head of Business & Marketing stated, “Fullerton India is strongly committed towards the overall development of rural India. We believe that making quality financial services available at the doorstep of the customer is financial inclusion in the truest sense. Our initiative has been successful, primarily because of our unique Merchandise Loan product that has been recognized nationally and internationally as the best end-user financing model.”
The company has won a string of awards in recognition of its efforts and has a rich history of rural development initiatives across India. Adding another feather in its cap with this esteemed win, the company continues to reinforce its commitment towards social and economic development.
Fullerton India Credit Company Limited is one of India’s leading Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC). It has 368 branches spread across 20 states in urban and rural centres, covering more than 400 towns and 30000 villages. It offers several retail finance products for varying needs of customers ranging from rural households to SMEs, in the locations it serves. Fullerton India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fullerton Financial Holdings, Singapore, which is a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings of Singapore.
