What "UNITUS SAYS ABOUT EQUITAS & AWARD" :

With the Unitus Acceleration Award, we seek to recognize an institution is accelerating microfinance, through innovation, growth, and a commitment to meeting client needs.  We seek to recognize an institution that is constantly innovating on their processes and pushing to find faster ways to serve more people with better products.  We seek to recognize an institution that is truly setting an example for all of us that no one should be without access to financial services. 

For all of these reasons, Unitus would like to award the second annual Unitus Acceleration Award to Equitas. 

• From the outset, Equitas has been innovative in  integrating a Grameen group lending model with commercial banking back office operations  to create a unique business model that is highly efficient and scalable. 

• Equitas has developed cost effective, creative, and sophisticated solutions in technology, HR, and operations.

• Equitas also has a strong management team with experience in Consumer Finance led by a CEO with a clear vision, focus and strategy.

• All of these factors combined to help them to reach 100,000 clients after only 9 months of operations. They also had the fourth-largest equity capital raise among MFIs in India. Their growth is truly impressive. 

• We have been equally impressed with their social focus.  Equitas emphasizes transparency and creates an awareness and understanding of its pricing structure to customers to ensure trustworthy access. They are focused on impact-and track total household asset value to ensure they truly are creating change. 

• Finally, Equitas is focused on long term profitability of the business, by seeking to create a value proposition for customers through partnerships/alliances and community development beyond financial services to better meet client needs.  

Equitas’s pioneering work has catalyzed the industry and will have a dramatic impact on the world of microfinance for years to come.  Equitas’s precision, commitment to transparency, and smart business sense have all made them very deserving of this award.

Partner Spotlight: Equitas

Equitas, an innovative MFI based out of Chennai, India, recently received the 2nd Annual Unitus Acceleration Award. Unitus presents the Acceleration Award each year to a partner who best exemplifies the goal of accelerating microfinance through innovation, growth, and commitment to client needs. Equitas’s innovative processes, strong management, and transparency make them a worthy recipient of the award.

Innovative Processes

From the outset, Equitas has been innovative in integrating a Grameen group-lending model with commercial banking back-office operations. Equitas quickly developed cost effective, creative, and sophisticated solutions in technology and operations. The result has been a unique business model that is highly efficient and scalable--enabling them to reach 150,000 clients in their first full year of operations and achieve one of the lowest customer acquisition costs in the industry. Their goal is to reach 600,000 families by March 2009.

Strong Management

Equitas also has a strong management team and Board with experience in retail banking, consumer finance, and microfinance. Led by CEO Mr. PN Vasudevan, the organization has operated under a clear vision, focus and strategy since its inception. Equitas immediately hired operations and IT experts who in turn established a world-class MIS system before launching the first loan product and developed an innovative process to deliver collection payment receipts to customers without the risk of embezzlement.

Transparency

Even with their rapid growth, Equitas has demonstrated commitment to their social mission. Equitas emphasizes transparency and creates an awareness and understanding of its pricing structure to customers to ensure trustworthy access. They use a variety of communication methods – oral and printing in passbooks--to ensure clients are aware of the full cost of their loan, including the real interest rate as well as service fees charged by Equitas. Equitas further demonstrated its spirit of transparency by disclosing the administration fee it collects from members as part of their life insurance premium.

Equitas’s work has catalyzed the industry and will have a dramatic impact on the world of microfinance for years to come. For their precision, scalability, commitment to transparency, and smart business sense, Unitus is pleased to award them the 2008 Unitus Acceleration Award.

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