Tractor Financing FI - Phone / Field - Do we have a choice ?

Originally written on April 16, 2017

I sat dazed after one of my training sessions. An enthusiast in class had asked me question, " Are you worried about the money lent coming back (as in being repaid) or how we (as financiers ) process each application ? " Interesting !! For a moment i was caught and then with a smile responded - "Both !"

Yet as an after thought, was wondering what would I want him to see when he goes out for that crucial Field Investigation ?

Multiple schools of thought are there, and each criteria has a time element in terms of gathering information. Gone are the days when the customer was willing to wait for the financier to give his revert. That, in my humble view, exists only for SBI for his offering and subsidy perspective in some pockets. The rest in the banking are yet to give the farmer confidence and non-banking is still weighed by its collections capacity. So the young lad's question made lot of relevance.

In so gathering multiple thought processes and bringing them to a convergence, might one say, a map of the following type forms in the mind, when it is an Agri Profile :

Broadly speaking, I need to know :

(a) Schema of the activities of the farmer.

(b) Deeper Understanding of the Geography, Terrain, Weather Patterns - Both Good and bad associated with it.

(c) How does the asset being funded add value to my customer ? How does the customer perceive it ? How different is our alignment than his ?

(d) His Experience - Need - Progression - Growth

These cannot be assessed sitting in a room. I then tried doing Phone based evaluation and Physical FI based evaluation, and found "visually" recorded brain impressions providing much more critical inputs and comfort than phone based.

To answer in one line - the extent of cases that go into arrears with Phone based assessment is almost 2.8 times that of field based assessments. Such resounding figures speak volumes. ....