Tata Capital's 'Salaam Loans' gives power to the common man

What if the social media likes on your career story were enough to get a loan approved and the financial institution didn't insist on checking your CIBIL score?

Cutting the hassle for people who want to transcend and go to the next level, Tata Capital is doing the same with Salaam Loans, which the company calls India's first democratised loans.

Under Salaam Loans, the company has done away with requirement of filling tens of forms and checking applicant's CIBIL score for small tickets loans.

Only your story explaining why you need that money can get you the approval, if it gets enough likes (salaams) on social media and company's website.

Speaking about the idea and the objective behind the campaign, Veetika Deoras, Chief Operating Officer - Digital Vertical and VP – Brand Marketing, Tata Capital Limited, said, “With ‘Salaam Loans’ our objective is to create a loan product that does right for people at large. When we look at the financial sector, hypothetically, out of the 100 people who apply for a loan any typical organised financer would end up rejecting maybe 60-50 per cent of them for multiple reasons. But there are a lot of people who require this financial aid to transcend and go to the next level.”

“The aim behind ‘Salaam Loans’ is two-fold. The first is to salute the spirit and perseverance of these people and the second is to move the power of approval from us and hand it to the public at large. Which is why we call this the first democratised loan,” added Deoras.

The initiative essentially does away with the forms people are supposed to fill while applying for a loan and replaces it with their stories. The stories stay online on www.doright.in for 3-4 weeks, and will be showcased across the country through social and digital media.

"Secondly, the power of evaluation has been handed over to the general public, where they view these stories and give their likes or ‘salaams’. When a story crosses a stipulated number of likes the person is then considered for credit evaluation. The evaluation is done on the basis of the story and once the authenticity of the story and of the person is established, the credit is released," she said.

The objective of the brand Tata Capital has been to ‘Do Right’. The non-banking financial company has rolled out many initiatives over the years to extend this brand promise of ‘doing right’, the latest in the effort being ‘Salaam Loans’.

The first season of the ‘Do Right’ initiative was launched in 2013 when initiatives like ‘Half Stories’ and ‘The journey of Doing Right’ were kicked started. The brand has now gone a step further with their newest offering ‘Salaam Loans’.

Much of Tata Capital’s initiatives and campaigns are digital heavy and about 25 per cent of all their advertising spend happens in the digital space. Highlighting the importance of the medium for them, Deoras said, “We believe that digital is a platform that allows you to engage with potential customers in a far deeper and richer manner. If you look at digital marketing there are three-four components to it and at Tata Capital we have a very defined strategy when it comes to digital marketing and for us every component is critical.”

According to Deoras their strong suit is business loans and personal loans. When asked about their competition, Deoras feels that all banks and NBFCs are their competition. Tata Capital currently has a very diverse portfolio with strong presence in home loan, education, personal, small ticket business loan and big business financing.

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