India’s untapped gold loan market offer good Filesadmin.co prospects: Unimoni CEO
Focusing on the gold loan business in a big way, Unimoni Financial Services is eyeing a ₹1000 crore book by FY25. Currently, the gold loan book is at ₹250 crore which is expected to go up by ₹750 crore in the current fiscal, Krishnan R, Director and CEO, Unimoni India said.
In a chat with businessline, he said the untapped gold loan market in India offers a good business opportunity and there is a need to move closer to the customers. Out of the available gold stock in the country, less than 10 per cent comes to the market for lending purpose, he said adding that the rising gold prices also augurs well for the market.
The company has come out with various schemes to woo customers for availing gold loans by introducing women friendly schemes, long term bridge loans for house-holds etc. It intends to open 100 more branches from the existing 311 spread across South India and 3 union territories.
Unimoni, which is celebrating 25 year of operations in India, is pinning greater hopes on its foreign exchange, travel and holidays business which is expected to mop additional revenue at a time when India’s growth story looks bullish across sectors, he said.
“In this digital era, our strategy is phygital model to improve our reach. By using innovative technology, we are in the process of developing an online platform (www.remitforex.com) for the remittance and Forex business. With the backup of technology, we are aiming for a seamless flow of transactions in the outward remittance space in the next financial year in addition to the network expansion”, he said.
On the remittance business, the CEO said “we are positioned as one of the leading AD-II (Authorised Dealers) entities in the country, facilitating transactions surpassing $750 million annually and generating a revenue of $14 million in this fiscal year. Our strategic objective for FY25 is to aim for a 30 per cent growth trajectory”.
On the challenges to the remittance business, Krishnan said the highly regulated nature of foreign exchange business processes such as customer on-boarding, settlement procedures and adherence to sanctions hold paramount importance. Addressing these challenges, he said India has earned support from numerous WTO members including the EU for its proposal aimed at reducing the cross border remittances and facilitating real time settlement, thereby enhancing seamless payment processes for end users.
The new FEMA guidelines which is expected to roll out in the next financial year will become a game changer in the remittance business. Also, the proposal of the RBI to allow AD category II entities to additionally facilitate trade-related transactions up to a value of ₹15 lakh per transaction will give more backup and courage to the leading AD II to expand business to the next level, he added.