Nurturing sound finance at Home Credit

Home Credit’s latest policy covers all the pillars required to ensure a responsible ESG approach

Home Credit’s ESG Report – set to be released on an annual basis - sets out a six-pillar framework that guides the company’s approach and carries a particular focus on some of the pandemic-related support the company has been extending to customers and communities across the world.

“Responsible finance, digital empowerment, and financial inclusion are woven into our company DNA. These principles are central to ESG at Home Credit and they underpin our support for customers, communities, staff, and stakeholders,” said Jean-Pascal Duvieusart, Group CEO of Home Credit. “The ongoing pandemic showed how strong these commitments are – and how much we can achieve when extraordinary people drive innovation. Everyone at Home Credit rose to the many challenges, building on our ESG foundation and transforming the business so we could better help others.”

Home Credit Vietnam has been operating since 2008, providing leading consumer financial products in the country with the outstanding advantages of being fast, simple, and friendly. Home Credit currently has a head office in Ho Chi Minh City, a branch in Hanoi, eight representative offices, and more than 9,000 service points in 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

Since opening, the company has been pursuing the mission to better the lives of Vietnamese customers through providing optimal, responsible, and sustainable consumer financial solutions. Home Credit is now one of the leading companies in the consumer finance industry in Vietnam – nearly 6,000 employees serve more than 12 million customers with three main products: POS loans for motorbikes, home appliances, and electronics; cash loans; and credit cards.

“Our ESG policy, approved in 2020, represents an evolution rather than a revolution. It codifies and improves what we were already doing for customers, employees, and the communities we live in,” added Jan Ruzicka, the group’s chief external officer and responsible for ESG and Sustainability. “This approach ensures that ESG and sustainability are consciously and consistently embedded in all of our operations.”

Home Credit Vietnam CEO Annica Witschard shared, “In Vietnam, we are leading the way in ESG standards. I am proud of how quickly and decisively we have acted to support the community, especially during the pandemic.”

During the most recent social distancing periods this year, Home Credit Vietnam launched Home Love, a programme that donated around $44,000 to the national vaccine fund and brought more than 30,000 meals and necessities to 10 field hospitals, quarantine facilities, charity homes, and homeless people. Moreover, 300 Mid-Autumn Festival gifts were handed out to children and families in quarantine facilities, as well as to frontline doctors and nurses.

Founded in 1997, Czech-based Home Credit is a global consumer finance provider with operations in nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and also India and China. The company offers non-collateralised, purpose-driven loans, cash loans and revolving lending products both online and in partnering retail shops. It drives and broadens financial inclusion for unbanked populations and encourages economic development by supporting domestic consumption.