AUXILO FINSERVE PRIVATE LIMITED (Auxilo /Company) being a Non-deposit taking NonBanking Financial Company (Category II) registered with Reserve Bank of India having customer interface is required to formulate its Board approved Fair Practices Code (FPC/Code).
Fair Practices code is formulated pursuant to the Reserve Bank Directives - Non-Banking Financial Company – Non-Systemically Important Non-Deposit taking Company (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016. The Code aims to enhance the scope of the spirit underlying these directions of the Reserve Bank of India.
FPC shall apply to all employees of the Company and other persons authorized to represent it in the course of its business with respect to all products and services. It shall apply across all aspects of its operations including marketing, loan origination, processing, servicing and collection activities.
All communication to the borrower shall be in the language understood by the borrower. The essential information which affects the interest of the customers should be communicated to the borrower so as to help them carry out a meaningful comparison before choosing Auxilo’s products and services. Hence while sourcing, at the minimum the interest rates, the processing fees and any other charges including prepayment charges and options shall be communicated to the customer.
The Loan application form shall also provide the list of document required to be submitted by the customer.
1 Additional documents required for processing the application shall be sought promptly from the customer through an appropriate channel of
communication.
On receipt of completed application form an appropriate acknowledgement shall be provided indicating the time frame within which the loan
application will be disposed. 2The time frame for disposing the loan application complete in all respect shall not be more than 30 days
from the date of receipt of all the requisite information/data from the Customer. The customer shall be informed about time frame being
subject to the requirement of special verifications, checks and investigations, if any, arrived upon the assessment of application.
The Customer shall be informed about the extended time frame in such cases.
It shall be conveyed in writing to the borrowers in the language understood by them by means of a sanction letter about the sanction of the loan. The Sanction letter shall indicate the amount of loan sanctioned along with the terms and conditions including annualized rate of interest and method of application thereof. The borrowers’ acceptance of these terms and conditions shall be kept on record.
The loan agreement shall be signed physically by both the parties that is the company and the borrower and where the agreement is to be signed digitally, the same shall be signed by both the company as well as the borrower electronically pursuant to the provisions of Information Technology Act.
The loan agreement to be signed with the borrower shall mention the penal charges that would be charged for late repayment in bold. An electronic or physical copy of the executed loan agreement along with its enclosures quoted therein shall be furnished to the Customer upon disbursement of loan.
The Board approved Policy on Fair Lending Practices – Penal Charges in Loan Accounts approved on November 3, 2023 shall be adhered to which governs the levying penal charges.
Notice shall be given to the borrowers in an event of any change in the terms and conditions in reference to the disbursement schedule, interest rates, service charges and the prepayment charges, in the language understood by the borrower clearly indicating the changed terms. Notice may be given by sending a Short Messaging Service (SMS), courier, electronic mail, email, registered or certified mail or facsimile where available. With the constant technological developments the means of communication have been enlarging and due to the ease thereof the customers may prefer the use of those means in addition to the above specified options. The company may explore these options and if found feasible can provide the customers the list of options to choose from. If the customer opts to be provided notice by any specific means of communication, the same shall be used to send out any kind of notice.
Changes in the interest rates and charges shall be effected only prospectively.
Any decision to recall/accelerate payment or performance shall be in consonance with the loan agreement.
All securities shall be released on repayment of all dues or on realization of the outstanding amount subject to any of the company’s legitimate right or lien for any other claim it may have against the borrower. If such right of set-off is to be exercised, the Company shall give notice to the borrower about the same with full particulars about the remaining claims and the conditions under which it is entitled to retain the securities till the relevant claim is settled / paid.
1 Added under Annual review – 27th October, 2021
2 Substituted under Annual review – 27th October, 2021
7 Added under Annual review – 25th October, 2024
The Company shall refrain from interference in the affairs of the borrower except for the purposes
provided in the terms and conditions of the loan agreement (unless new information, not earlier
disclosed by the borrower, has come to its notice).
Transfer of loan request – If the borrower requests for transfer of the loan account, the company shall
either accord its consent or intimate its objection, if any to the same, and convey its decision in writing
within 21 days from the date of receipt of request. Such transfer shall be as per the contractual terms
entered into with the borrower and should be in consonance with law.
iThe Company shall not charge foreclosure charges/ pre-payment penalties on any floating rate term
loan sanctioned for purposes other than business to individual borrowers, with or without co-obligant(s).
The customer shall be promptly informed about the repayment process, schedule including the amount, tenure and periodicity of repayment.
The customers shall be provided all the information regarding dues and shall endeavour to give sufficient notice for payment of dues3 / or
repossession of security if any. The customer shall be reminded by sending notice or by making personal visits. .4 It shall be ensured that the entire process of enforcing the security, valuation and realization thereof be fair and transparent.
In the matter of recovery of loans, undue harassment for example persistently bothering the borrowers at odd hours, use of muscle power for recovery of loans, etc., shall be strictly avoided. The recovery methods should be courteous, fair and persuasive. The Company employees and the persons authorized to represent the company shall always deal with the customers in a polite manner. They shall identify themselves and display the authority letter issued by the company.
Guidelines for the collection of dues:
The odd hours shall be construed in accordance with the guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India from time to time.
3 Added- Annual review – 27th October, 2021
4 Added -Annual review – 27th October, 2021
The Board approved 5Interest rate policy (ANNEX II) laid down for determining the interest rates, processing and other charges shall be adhered to.
The rate of interest applicable to customers would be based on Company’s Benchmark Lending Rate which in turn is dependent on factors such as cost of funds, margin, etc., plus a spread which is determined on the risk gradation of each application. The rate of interest would also differ depending on the category of customer.
Gradation of risk depends on factors such as student's academic background, employability of the selected course from a selected college and country of study, financial strength of the co-borrower, loan repayment capability, credit history, collateral offered or not, serviceability of the loan through Company’s branch network, cost/s associated with underwriting and servicing the loan.
The application form shall include the rate of interest and indicate that the differential rate of interest shall be chargeable pursuant to the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India from time to time. The sanction letter for the information of the customer shall indicate the same.
The Board approved Policy on Reset of Floating Interest Rate on Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI) approved on November 3, 2023 shall be adhered to which interalia mandates the Company to communicate to the borrowers about the possible impact of change in benchmark interest rate on the loan leading to changes in EMI and/or tenor or both, provides for the procedures for resetting the interest rate to switch over to a fixed rate, mandates providing of options to choose between enhancement in EMI or elongation of tenor or for a combination of both options (b) to prepay, either in part or in full, at any point during the tenor of the loan and other terms to ensure transparency and clarity in accordance with the applicable regulations.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Company shall submit to the Board on a quarterly basis on the review of the compliances under the code and functioning of the greivances redressal mechanism at various levels of management.
The Guarantor(s) shall be informed about their liability as Guarantor in terms of amount and the circumstances when the liability would arise. The Guarantors shall also be given an understanding about the recourse available with the company if he/she fails to pay the amount guaranteed for payment.
The Company shall also inform the guarantor of any material adverse change/s in the financial position of the borrower for whom he / she stands as a Guarantor.
5 Added – Annual review – 27th October, 2021
8 Added – Annual review – 25th October, 2024
The Company shall always maintain confidentiality with respect to the personal information of customers. Following would be the exception to this:
The customers shall be informed about their rights under the existing legal framework for accessing the personal records that the company holds about them.
There shall be no discrimination amongst the customers on the basis of age, race, caste, gender, marital status, religion or disability, including but not limited for processing of loan applications or for redressing their grievances.
6 Provision added proposed under Annual review 2021
The customer shall be informed that the law mandates the company to pass the borrowers account information to credit reference agencies.
The customer shall be intimated in writing that the company intends to give information about the debts of the customer to the credit reference agencies. The intimation to the customer shall explain the role of credit reference agencies and the effect of the information provided by them will have on their ability to get credit.
On customer’s request, a copy of the information sent to credit reference agencies shall be provided.
The Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) laid out under Annex 1 provides for resolving any disputes arising out of the decisions of the company’s functionaries. All disputes arising out of the Company’s functionaries shall be heard and disposed of at least at the next higher level. The Grievance Redressal Mechanism shall also deal with the issues relating to services outsourced by the Company and are provided by outsourced Service Provider, if any.
The GRM shall provide for the following:
The GRM shall nominates a Company’s official as the Grievance Redressal Officer who can be approached by the public for resolution of complaints against the Company.
For the benefit of the customers at the operational level, the company shall display the name and contact details (Telephone/Mobile no. and Email address) of the Grievance Redressal officer prominently at each of its branches and places where the business is transacted.
For the information of the Customers, if the customer's complaint / dispute is not redressed by the Grievance Redressal Officer within a period of one month, the customer may appeal to the Officer-in Charge of the Regional Office of the Department of Non-Banking Supervision (DNBS) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Mumbai under whose jurisdiction the registered office of the Company falls.
The Nodal Officer/ Principal Nodal Officer shall be appointed under the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021.
The Code shall be reviewed annually or earlier if deemed necessary by the Board of Directors of the Company.
Grievance Redressal Mechanism herein provides the process of resolving any disputes/complaints arising out of the decisions of the company’s functionaries.
The Customer/Borrower having any grievance/complaint can register the complaint giving the details of the complaint and the name of the officer/employee of the company concerned in the following ways, which shall be addressed in a maximum of ten working days:
Branch manager herein will also refer to the manager concerned of the non-branch office where the company’s businesses
is transacted. If the complaint is against the Branch Manager, same should be addressed to the Customer Grievance
Redressal Officer.
In case the customer is not satisfied with the resolution/response provided by the customer engagement team/s as above, then customer shall escalate to Level 2 as given below.
Grievance Redressal for ex-gratia payment - The Customer/Borrower having any grievance/complaint in regards to Government of India’s scheme for the ex-gratia payment of difference between compound interest and simple interest for six months to borrowers in specified loan accounts can register the complaint giving the details of the complaint by sending an email to the below mentioned concerned email id, for which the preliminary remarks shall be provided by the company through its designated nodal officers for this purpose within 72 hours and a final response within 7 working days.
Zone | Email ID |
Maharashtra, Gujarat | Nodalofficergr.westzone@auxilo.com |
Delhi | Nodalofficergr.northzone@auxilo.com |
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka | Nodalofficergr.southzone@auxilo.com |
Grievance submission by the customers can be submitted at the Branch office also.
If the Customer is not satisfied with the initial resolution or the complaint is against the Branch Manager, the complainant can send the complaint addressing to the Customer Grievance redressal officer quoting the acknowledgment number of initial complaint. Below mentioned are the details of Customer Grievance redressal officer:
We will make our best efforts to resolve customer’s complaint at this level.
If the complaint/ dispute is not redressed within a period of one month, the customer may appeal to the following authority
Officer-in-Charge
Reserve Bank of India,
Department of Non-Banking Supervision,
RBI Building, Opp. Mumbai Central Railway Station,
Near Maratha Mandir,
Byculla, Mumbai – 400 008
Interest Rate Policy
iAmended – Annual Review October, 2019
Before amendment it read as follow - The Company shall not charge any foreclosure or prepayment penalties on the term loans sanctioned to individual borrowers at the floating rate of interest.
7Substituted under Annual review October, 2021