Because of the vulnerability of the poor, it is critical to treat them with dignity. As such, Vaya has a heightened focus on the seven principles of customer protection: fair and respectful treatment, transparency, designing suitable products, preventing over-indebtedness, privacy, and having a mechanism for complaint resolution.
Since Vaya customers are not familiar with conventional banking, Vaya trains them. Vaya uses innovative participatory aids such as seeds, coins and cardboard cut-outs to explain loan terms, interest rates, joint liability and other features. Such training not only imparts awareness but also serves to bolster trust and strengthen the credit culture.
Vaya's field staff invest significant time to develop good relationships with customers and build trust. They are always readily available to answer a query or address a problem. There are extensive checks and balances in place to ensure fair and respectful treatment of customers.
Field staff undergo thorough and ongoing training and evaluation.
Vaya's Product Details and Policies:
Vaya takes great care in designing its loan products to be convenient and accessible for customers.
Vaya has a robust grievance redressal policy to address customer concerns.
Vaya promotes integrity, transparency, ethical behaviour and customer protection through its fair practices code.
Salient Features of RBI Ombudsman Scheme
List of Committee Members of Board & Management
RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme 2021
Related Party Transaction Policy
Vaya was the first company to use tablet banking in rural India, which it launched when it was founded in 2014. The Wall Street Journal profiled Vaya for this pioneering deployment of technology. Since then, Vaya has added other state-of-the-art technology, from QR readers to iris-scan biometric authentication.
Vaya has a powerful Core Banking System integrated with a tablet-based Loan Management System and digital Unique Identification Card (Aadhaar) readers. What makes Vaya’s technology unique, however, is that it is designed for rural field staff. They are not forced to adapt to technology; Vaya has adapted technology to them. Ruggedness, battery life, brightness, vernacular fonts, the Graphic User Interface, the font shape and size—these are the features Vaya has kept in mind, the type of things that banks typically may not think about. In so doing, Vaya’s technology makes conducting transactions easier for staff and therefore convenient for customers.
As a result of its technology initiatives, when demonetization (the elimination of large currency notes) happened in late 2016, Vaya was prepared.
Today, Vaya uses tablets in three stages: sourcing, disbursement, and collection of loans. At the sourcing stage, staff scan required documents and take photos of customers. Then they use barcodes from the prospective clients’ Aadhar cards to pre-populate data in forms. Field staff then enter remaining data including details about assets and annual income.
Field staff then check the Credit Bureau. Loans which are approved by the Credit Bureau are highlighted on tablets. The customer is notified, the sanction amount from the Credit Bureau checked, and staff member disburses the loan. Software automatically notifies field staff when the collection date arrives. Once field staff collect repayments, they enter the collection amounts. When they connect their tablets to the internet at their branches, the data is seamlessly uploaded to the server.
Vikram began working in rural development in 1990 as a grassroots social worker. In 1997, he founded Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited or BFIL (formerly SKS Microfinance), which became one of the world’s largest microfinance companies. Vikram led BFIL to its IPO in 2010, steering BFIL to reach a market capitalization of $2.2 billion and an outreach of 7.3 million low-income borrowers across 120,000 villages. As of 2016, BFIL had disbursed $9.3 billion in loans. Vikram left BFIL in 2012 and is Chairperson Emeritus. He joined Vaya in 2014.
For his work in financial inclusion, TIME Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006. Vikram was also named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in India (Start-Up in 2006 and Business Transformation in 2010), the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader in 2009, the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year in India in 2006, and is a 1998 Echoing Green Fellow. He has a B.A. from Tufts, an M.A. from Yale, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, was a Fulbright Scholar, and has worked with McKinsey & Company and the Worldwatch Institute.
He is the author of A Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability (2010), published by Harvard Business Press. He is a Senior Fellow at the CEME at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, a Director in AgSri (a sustainable agriculture company) and in Bodhi Society (which provides education for under-privileged children), and on the advisory boards of the Indian School of Business and the Tufts University’s Tisch College.
Sateesh has 29 years of work experience across varied industries viz., Microfinance, Insurance, Clean Energy and Retail and successfully managed large teams nationally and other emerging markets. Building sustainable and progressive businesses through a strong combination of Sales, Operations and Strategic orientation is his forte.
Sateesh is credited for developing the solar products business through Microfinance sector at d.light which is now the biggest channel of business for the entire solar industry. He believes in robust partnerships, flawless implementation and motivated team to achieve high performance.
Earlier, as Executive VP, Operations at Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (formerly SKS Microfinance Ltd), Sateesh had managed large teams and also established the ‘SKS’ brand with external stakeholders. He was involved in developing many industry standard policies and systems. As CEO of Royal Sporting House, he had developed retail distribution business of sports goods and as Regional Director of Aviva Life Insurance; he had increased the Bancassurance business multi-fold. Sateesh is a Mechanical Engineer and had done MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. He has also done an Executive Education program in Harvard Business School.
Dr. Biksham Gujja was instrumental in establishing AgSri Agricultural Services Pvt. Ltd. From 1993 to 2010, Dr. Gujja worked with WWF, based at Gland, Switzerland, where he started the Freshwater Programme. As Senior Policy Advisor, he contributed to such major international initiatives as the World Commission on Dams, the World Water Commission, the World Water Forum, and others. Dr. Gujja was also involved in establishing projects related to high-altitude wetlands and lakes in Himalayas, river dolphins, thirsty crops initiative, cotton initiative, developing appropriate responses for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, and traditional water management systems.
From 2003 onwards, he led a team of professionals in the WWF-ICRISAT Joint Project, which focused on improving water productivity for major crops like rice and sugarcane. As Team Leader, Dr. Gujja developed, refined, and implemented farm-based methods such as the Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI) and System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which have now received global recognition and attention. Another critical area of focus for Dr. Gujja has been to establish civil society dialogue forums on specific issues such as water conflicts, the interlinking of rivers, and the Polavaram dam, to facilitate informed decision-making on major water infrastructure projects. He has managed projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, successfully mobilizing human and financial resources on water management for the WWF network. From 1987 to 1992, prior to his assignment with WWF-International, Dr. Gujja was Director of Deccan Development Society (DDS), a non-profit organisation working in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. As Director of DDS, he initiated many programs on sustainable agriculture, social forestry, and traditional water management. He was also part of the team that designed the Krishi Vignana Kendra of Medak district in Andhra Pradesh, India during its initial stages. Before this, he worked in the Mineral Exploration Corporation as Senior Manager.
Dr. Gujja has published extensively on water management and improving agricultural productivity. Dr. Gujja was a post-doctoral Fellow at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Shankar Ramaswami is the Executive Director of the Centre for Justice Studies at Jindal Global University in Delhi. His research and teaching focus is on migrant labour and poverty. He is currently completing a book about migrant workers in Delhi. Prior to Jindal, he was a Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard University where he taught courses on anthropology and literature and he works on globalization, migration and urban workers.
He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College.
Lakshminarayanan is a Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant with over 18 years’ experience in financial management, budgeting, treasury, financial reporting and controllership, cost management, audit, risk management and taxation.
Prior to Vaya, he worked with AppLabs (a CSC company), Bharat Financial Inclusion or BFIL (formerly SKS Microfinance), Goldman Sachs, ICICI Bank, and KPMG. He is an experienced finance leader who has managed multi-product and multi-location teams.
At ICICI Bank, he was part of the internal audit team and was responsible for evaluating the internal controls and risk management processes in their International Banking Operations and their Information Technology departments. At BFIL, he was the Financial Controller and was responsible for financial reporting, controllership functions, taxation, and cost management.
Kavita provides flowers and garlands for weddings, housewarming ceremonies and other functions. She took a loan through Vaya Finserv and increased her harvest and profits. With half her loan repaid, Kavita talks about her experience and hopes for the future.
Sangeetha has been rolling beedis for 20 years, but she was losing Rs. 50 of potential income every day because she couldn't afford to buy her own leaves. With Vaya's help, she's taken a step closer to independence.
Subbamma is a 35-year old sugarcane farmer who took it upon herself to form a 'sangam' - a group of women - so that they could all benefit from microloans. In 2015, she took a two-year loan from YES Bank through Vaya Finserv to increase her harvest. With the loan period drawing to a close, she tells us about her experience.
Assisted by Vaya in starting her puffed rice business, Gaya Devi has found a way to be fiscally independent and stand on her own two feet. Here, she describes her experience.
Armun runs an embroidery business with her husband. They do intricate "zari" work on vivid saris. With Vaya's help, she bought materials and paid an artisan. Now that she has repaid her loan, she wants a second one to hire more artisans and increase production. She has five beautiful daughters whose future she wants to secure.
Balamani and her husband took out a loan of INR 60,000 for their daughter's wedding. Her husband is working off the debt with their creditor; an entire year's salary will go towards repayment. Balamani, meanwhile, washes clothes, takes up agricultural work and sundry small jobs to help out. With a loan from Vaya, Balamani bought a buffalo, and with it, a steady supplement to her income. With only a few months left until their debt is cleared, Balamani describes her experience with the loan and her aspirations for the future - she wants to run a dairy farm, turning that steady trickle of income into a viable, reliable business.
When Surekha lost her husband to suicide 10 years ago, the care of their four children fell entirely on her vulnerable shoulders. With no business or work experience, it was difficult to find a lender who had faith in her ability to repay. But Surekha had faith in herself. With the help of Vaya's loan, she bought goats and became a goat farmer, learning about business and the management of money on the way. This is the story of her courage, resilience and optimism in the face of tragedy.
Shahana found her first loan from Vaya so useful to her business (apart from making flutes, she was able to help her son set up a mobile shop) that she took another loan soon after repaying her first one. 4 instalments into the repayment cycle of her second loan, she explains how she uses the loan money and what she hopes to gain for her business and her children.
Annapurna is a smiling young lady of very modest means. Every day, she weaves and sells towels. With Vaya's help, she was able to procure material in bulk. For her family, she dreams of owning a refrigerator, a grinder and her own home. For herself, she dreams of travelling, starting with Puri and Konark. Like so many of our customers, she is willing to work hard for a better future.
Sushama is a quiet lady who has honed her expertise in the colourful craft of painted wooden idols of the famous Puri Jagannath deity. Her aspirations are simple and universal: a flourishing business and a better quality of life for herself and her family. With Vaya's loan, she can begin to lay the practical groundwork for the expansion of her business.
Through her job with Vaya as a field credit officer, Jayamma is able to both help support her family, and give the women in her community the financial support they deserve. She is an independent woman who takes pride in her work and is touched by the affection and respect customers show her.
Kavita provides flowers and garlands for weddings, housewarming ceremonies and other functions. She took a loan through Vaya Finserv and increased her harvest and profits. With half her loan repaid, Kavita talks about her experience and hopes for the future.
Sangeetha has been rolling beedis for 20 years, but she was losing Rs. 50 of potential income every day because she couldn't afford to buy her own leaves. With Vaya's help, she's taken a step closer to independence.
Subbamma is a 35-year old sugarcane farmer who took it upon herself to form a 'sangam' - a group of women - so that they could all benefit from microloans. In 2015, she took a two-year loan from YES Bank through Vaya Finserv to increase her harvest. With the loan period drawing to a close, she tells us about her experience.
Assisted by Vaya in starting her puffed rice business, Gaya Devi has found a way to be fiscally independent and stand on her own two feet. Here, she describes her experience.
Armun runs an embroidery business with her husband. They do intricate "zari" work on vivid saris. With Vaya's help, she bought materials and paid an artisan. Now that she has repaid her loan, she wants a second one to hire more artisans and increase production. She has five beautiful daughters whose future she wants to secure.
Balamani and her husband took out a loan of INR 60,000 for their daughter's wedding. Her husband is working off the debt with their creditor; an entire year's salary will go towards repayment. Balamani, meanwhile, washes clothes, takes up agricultural work and sundry small jobs to help out. With a loan from Vaya, Balamani bought a buffalo, and with it, a steady supplement to her income. With only a few months left until their debt is cleared, Balamani describes her experience with the loan and her aspirations for the future - she wants to run a dairy farm, turning that steady trickle of income into a viable, reliable business.
Shahana found her first loan from Vaya so useful to her business (apart from making flutes, she was able to help her son set up a mobile shop) that she took another loan soon after repaying her first one. 4 installments into the repayment cycle of her second loan, she explains how she uses the loan money and what she hopes to gain for her business and her children.
When Surekha lost her husband to suicide 10 years ago, the care of their four children fell entirely on her vulnerable shoulders. With no business or work experience, it was difficult to find a lender who had faith in her ability to repay. But Surekha had faith in herself. With the help of Vaya's loan, she bought goats and became a goat farmer, learning about business and the management of money on the way. This is the story of her courage, resilience and optimism in the face of tragedy.
Annapurna is a smiling young lady of very modest means. Every day, she weaves and sells towels. With Vaya's help, she was able to procure material in bulk. For her family, she dreams of owning a refrigerator, a grinder and her own home. For herself, she dreams of travelling, starting with Puri and Konark. Like so many of our customers, she is willing to work hard for a better future.
Sushama is a quiet lady who has honed her expertise in the colourful craft of painted wooden idols of the famous Puri Jagannath deity. Her aspirations are simple and universal: a flourishing business and a better quality of life for herself and her family. With Vaya's loan, she can begin to lay the practical groundwork for the expansion of her business.
Through her job with Vaya as a field credit officer, Jayamma is able to both help support her family, and give the women in her community the financial support they deserve. She is an independent woman who takes pride in her work and is touched by the affection and respect customers show her.