Janalakshmi (formerly Sanghamithra urban program)

Mission:

To enable transformation for urban excluded customers by being a one-stop shop financial services provider in a market oriented fashion

Background and Main Challenges:

Urban excluded population face several challenges including lack of access to a range of financial products and services to help achieve financial stability and growth; lack of access to sevaral basic facilities such as quality affordable housing and finance for housing; lack of information and ... Read more

Address:

Rajashree Saroja Plaza, No 34/1, Andree Road, Shanthinagar

Banglore

India

Phone:

+91 80 42595700

Fax:

+91 80 41525770

Email:

info [at] janalakshmi [dot] com

Website:

www.janalakshmi.com

Main Funding Sources:

Loans

Shareholder Capital

Products and Services:

Loans

Insurance

Training and Consulting

Looking for (Investment Types):

Loans in Local Currency

Donations

Guarantees

Equity investments

% Operations Comprised by MF:

91 - 100

Date established:

Jul 24 2003

FYE:

31-Mar

Current Legal Status:

NBFI

Regulated:

yes

Social Performance Profile


+ Mission specifics
+ Target markets (ranked by importance)
Clients living in urban areas	1
Women	2
+ Development goals (ranked by importance)
Increased access to financial services	1
Growth of existing businesses	2
Housing	3
Children's schooling	4
Improvement of adult education	5
+ Poverty targets
Poor clients
Low income clients
+ Governance
Has trained members of its board on social performance management
+ Range of products and services
+ Financial products and services offered
+ Credit products offered
Microcredit loans for microenterprises
Microcredit for household needs/consumption
SME loans
Loans for education
Housing loans
+ Savings products offered
+ Compulsory insurance products required
Compulsory credit life insurance

+ Voluntary insurance products offered
Voluntary life insurance

+ Other financial products and services offered
Debit/credit card
Mobile banking services
Savings facilitation services
Have a tie-in with Axis Bank for extending savings accounts to target customers. Have a tie-in with UTI AMC-IIMPS for micro pensions services
+ Non-financial services offered
+ Enterprise services offered
+ Education services offered
Financial literacy education
+ Health services offered
+ Women's empowerment services offered
Group financial counseling
+ Products and services targeting the poor
Products and services specifically designed to target the poor:	Includes savings, insurance, pensions, loans for productive purposes, education, housing, consumption, enterprises; services such as financial literacy, group financial counselling are rendered to empower the target customer
+ Social responsibility to clients
+ Client protection principles in use
The loan approval process requires evaluation of borrower repayment capacity and loan affordability. Loan approval does not rely solely on guarantees (whether peer guarantees, co-signers or collateral) as a substitute for good capacity analysis.
Internal audits check household debt exposure, lending practices that violate procedures including unauthorized re-financing, multiple borrowers or co-signers per household, and other practices that could increase indebtedness.
Productivity targets and incentive systems value portfolio quality at least as highly as other factors, such as disbursement or customer growth. Growth is rewarded only if portfolio quality is high.
Prices, terms and conditions of all financial products are fully disclosed to the customer prior to sale, including interest charges, insurance premiums, minimum balances, all fees, penalties, linked products, third party fees, and whether these can change over time.
Staff is trained to communicate effectively with all customers, ensuring that they understand the product, the terms of the contract, their rights and obligations. Communications techniques address literacy limitations (e.g. reading contracts out loud, materials in local languages).
Acceptable and unacceptable debt collection practices are clearly spelled out in a code of ethics, book of staff rules or debt collection manual.
The organization's corporate culture values and rewards high standards of ethical behavior and customer service.
A mechanism to handle customer complaints is in place, has dedicated staff resources, and is actively used. (Suggestion boxes alone are generally not considered adequate.)
Customers know how their information will be used. Staff explains how data will be used and seeks permission for use.
+ Cost of services to clients
+ Social responsibility to staff
+ Human resources
Protection at work (safety, anti-harassment)
Equality (anti-discrimination, equal pay for men and women with equivalent skill levels)
+ Basis of staff incentives related to social performance
Ability to attract new clients from target market
Outreach to women
Quality of interaction with clients based on client feedback mechanisms
Quality of social data collected
Client retention/drop-out rate
Portfolio quality
+ Social responsibility to the environment
+ Poverty measurement tools in use
Grameen Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI)