Bajaj Finance To Offer Option To Avoid Marketing Calls

Individuals seeking to stop receiving telemarketing calls from representatives of Bajaj Finance Ltd. will soon have the option to be “forgotten” by the company.

“You will see in three months’ time on our website and our web app, an option, you click it, and we will never bother you again. You have the right to be forgotten with us,” said Sanjiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Finserv Ltd.—the parent company—at an event to launch the company’s mutual fund business.

The move will probably be seen as a step in the right direction by a large number of individuals—many of whom have taken to social media to complain about repeated calls from representatives of the non-banking finance company, attempting to sell loans.

Bajaj admitted that the current system sometimes goes wrong, but stressed the importance of the outreach. “We issue 3 million loans a month and we get 1,500 complaints a quarter. No doubt, we have 1,500 people we have to solve for, to understand why they are getting bombarded, without 3 million people losing out on the opportunity to be financially included,” he said.

The lender currently receives around 15% of its business through the outreach via telemarketing calls, according to Bajaj. This is a considerable amount, especially because Bajaj Finance has a large number of small-ticket loans.

In the quarter ended March 31, Bajaj Finance added 30.9 lakh new customers and grew its assets under management by 29% to Rs 2.47 lakh crore.

Eventually, the company would like to increase its dependence on digital channels and reduce the origination of loans through “push” efforts to 10% and then even lower, Bajaj said.