Home Credit

Home Credit wants to change the way the world shops by delivering consumer finance products that are readily accessible and affordable for customers. Home Credit Group employs numerous processes and solutions that it centrally develops and then adapts to each market. By employing this strategy, Home Credit manages to remain exceptionally nimble and innovative even in the constantly evolving digital world where advanced technologies and data analysis methods set the stage for a responsible, inclusive approach to customer credit services.

Home Credit Group B.V., the parent company, holds equity interests in leading consumer finance companies in ten countries around the world. The group operates in countries with a total population of around 3.4 billion between them where the growth potential is high, GDP expansion rates are above average, and the financial-service penetration rate is low. National financial regulators in all these markets have granted Home Credit the necessary licenses.

For many of its customers, Home Credit is the first regulated institution ever to grant them credit and, more generally, the first lender with which they have  had a positive borrowing experience. By the end of 2019, 132 million customers had used Home Credit’s services. During that year, the Home Credit Group provided almost 27 million loans, or one every second.

Growing numbers of customers are switching to online shopping, and are increasingly using mobile apps to do so. This makes online sales channels a core part of Home Credit Group’s multi-channel proposition. Home Credit uses its own online marketplace and mobile app, as well as partnerships with various retail and service businesses, in both the real and digital worlds to distribute products.

The Coronavirus Pandemic

The global coronavirus pandemic of 2019 and 2020 stifled demand for consumer goods and credit, especially with shops shuttered and entire regions put into lockdown for months on end. Job losses and waning customer purchasing power increased the risk posed by previously granted credit. Nevertheless, Home Credit’s response was to work with customers affected by the pandemic, granting them various repayment deferrals or restructuring their loans.

The pandemic had the side effect of significantly speeding up the long-term goal of digitalizing our business model. For example, customers can now use a mobile app to apply for credit in brick-and-mortar stores, not just online. Merchandise is available for purchase in Home Credit’s own online marketplace, and customers can also use credit to cover their spending needs simply by scanning a QR code on their mobile phone. Home Credit’s call centers have mass-deployed self-learning robots capable of engaging in an appropriate and effective dialogue with customers.