Annual Report 2019

reconditioned car market as well as with SME clients. The acquisition has helped us to strengthen our portfolio with larger corporates, as well as strengthening our position in the operating lease market. The Leasing business unit has had a strong financial year, growing positively its leasing disbursements in FY19. Cim Finance’s leasing portfolio remains a significant part of the business, comprising 22% of the value of the company’s total asset book. Cards & Payments Cim Finance Ltd was the first non-bank financial institution (NBFI) in sub-Saharan Africa to receive MasterCard accreditation in 2005 and we started issuing credit cards shortly thereafter. In 2008 we started debit and credit card acquiring activities. In 2010 we received Visa accreditation and started credit and debit card acquiring for Visa, and in 2011 launched Visa credit cards. Cim Finance Ltd now has a base of over 60,000 credit card accounts in issue in Mauritius. Cim Finance Ltd has a market share in Mauritius of approximately 20% for both the number of cards in issue as well as the value of outstanding balances. We believe that enhancing our payments capabilities and proposition is essential to compete in the Mauritian market going forward, especially with the advent of the Mauritius Central Automated Switch (MAUCAS). We are actively engaging with the Bank of Mauritius on the implications of MAUCAS to ensure that as a company Cim Finance Ltd is well positioned to take advantage of the benefits of the MAUCAS Instant Payment System. In order to enhance our cards value proposition to our clients, we decided to outsource the processing of our credit card and POS transactions to MCB Group’s subsidiary ICPS. We completed this complex project during the year and we would like to commend the team for their hard work and dedication in doing so. The Cards & Payments business unit has had a good financial year, taking into account that a significant amount of management time and effort has been spent onmanaging the outsourcing of card issuing and acquiring processing to ICPS. Issuing spend and acquiring volumes have both experienced increases during the year. Factoring Cim Finance Ltd was also a pioneer in Factoring in Mauritius, launching its factoring business in 2004 offering recourse factoring to its domestic customers and launching its non- recourse product in 2006. The Factoring team provides Cim Finance customers with solutions that help to access the working capital needed to support their business growth by: financing of up to 90% of invoice values; complete sales ledger administration and collections; as well as credit insurance cover of debtors. Cim Finance’s credit insurer is Coface, headquartered in Paris. Coface has over 4,000 employees in 100 countries. We work closely with Coface, with Coface helping Cim Finance Ltd to anticipate and evaluate the risks of debtors covered by Coface’s credit insurance so that we can make the right business decisions. Cim Finance is a member of Factor Chain International (FCI), headquartered in Amsterdam. We developed and launched import and export factoring products towards the end of the year and look forward to supporting Mauritian corporates and SMEs with their import and export related working capital needs, leveraging FCl’s global network of members and affiliates. Factoring disbursements increased satisfactorily in FY19. Outlook As discussed in the Group CEO’s review, we will be investing significantly in our core lending systems and key support systems, as well as investing in our digital capabilities with the anticipated launch of our consumer app in FY20. We will also look to further enhance our scorecards and process automation, as well as our advanced analytics capabilities, to help us continue to drive sustainable loan disbursement  growth. The initial focus of our digital lending proposition will be focussed on our core Consumer Finance business and we expect future growth in new customer segments through the digital channels that we will build out. We have a number of initiatives to strengthen our Leasing proposition in the new and recon car finance lease market and we will aim to strengthen our operating lease proposition. The Cards & Payments team has a number of initiatives to drive higher Issuing spend in FY20 and we will deploy a new fleet of differentiated POS devices into the market in FY20. With the support of the SIC SME Export Factoring Scheme, as well as continued collaboration with MEXA and MEXA’s members, we will look to drive growth in our newly launched import and export factoring products. We will also look to leverage our existing customer base and product set to bring a more compelling SME proposition to market in FY20. CIM FINANCIAL SERVICES LTD / ANNUAL REPORT 2019 29