| CIM FINANCE. INTEGRATED REPORT 2022 32 In last year’s report, you shared that FY 2023 would see a focus on growing Cim Finance’s capabilities in Consumer Finance. What progress was made on this front? As a reminder, the Consumer Finance segment is one of our key strengths. It aims to offer financial solutions to our customers through nine sub-offices and a network of 91 in-store counters across Mauritius and Rodrigues. During the year, wewitnessed anuptick indemand compared to the previous financial year for our consumer finance products, namely Credit Finance Agreements to purchase consumer electronic goods and unsecured loans to finance personal projects. This was achieved in spite of further tightening our credit policies, which is a strong indicator of the revival in consumption, and overall improvement in economic and business sentiment. In parallel, we have been undergoing a digital transformation in response to a culture of immediacy that has accelerated since the pandemic. Customers have come to demand instant and speedy interactions, without having to queue up. We have fully embraced this digital renaissance and leapfrogged the development of our omnichannel capabilities. As an example, we launchedWhatsApp for MoCrédit, enabling clients to apply for an unsecured loan for their personal projects viaWhatsApp in amatter of minutes, with just a few clicks. The authentication and verification process is also completed remotely via a Video Know Your Customer (vKYC) solution. Using state-ofthe-art technologies such as facial recognition, geo location and matching algorithms with optical character recognition, customers can apply for their loans digitally, from the comfort of their office or home. This brings added convenience to customers, while also relieving our teams of redundantmanual work, making themmore efficient and focused on delivering a positive customer experience. At the same time, digital holds great potential to help us achieve amore sustainable future. In automating our processes, we are transitioning away fromusing paper. Of the 222,148 contracts generated during the year, 80% were paperless. Howdid the Leasing segment fare, especially in viewof the acquisition of Tsusho Capital (Mauritius) Ltd? Our Leasing business performed extremely well, as expected following the reopening of borders. Core to this segment is the ability to develop and nurture strong relationships with vehicle dealerships. Our acquisition of TsushoCapital (Mauritius) Ltd is expected tobe very beneficial to increasing our presence, particularly as they offer in-house leasing at Toyota and CFAO Motors. Cim Finance now has in-house desks at Toyota, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Fuzo and Suzuki, making us the first point of contact for customers and providing great scope for us to further penetrate this segment. It isworthmentioning that following the amalgamation inOctober 2022, ourHumanResources department playedan instrumental role in ensuring the integration of both teams through training sessions and change management to ensure a seamless and successful merger. Alongside this, we successfully launched a new leasing onboarding system for individual clients in collaboration with Seriti, a South African company. The leasing application process is automated fromend to end, significantly reducing turnaround times and contributing toCimFinance claiming a leadership role in the Mauritian leasing market in the near future. I am thrilled by the official launch of the Green lease financing plan, designed to encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles and equipment. The response has been very favourable so far, as we are seeing significant growth in the purchase of hybrid and electric vehicles. Much of this credit also goes to the government’s announcement tomake all hybrid and EV vehicles duty-free in a drive to push Mauritian consumers towards more responsible purchasing behaviours. All of the abovemeasures have contributedpositively to growing the Leasing business. Has the integration of digital payment solutions led to the improvedperformanceof Cim’s Cards&Payments segment, as you were aiming for? Building on our increasingmarket share in active cards issued, we grew the number of credit cards by 7% and POS acquiring volumes by 50%. We successfully executed on the initial phase of our digital payments strategy to enhance our digital ecosystem and online payment services. The first step was the approval of our Payment Services Provider licence by the BOM inNovember 2021. Having integrated the MauCas IPS enablement on our MoFinans app, customers are nowable to pay their instalments and have their payments allocated near-instantly. As evidenced by our investment in Fundkiss, we strongly believe in tying up with established Fintechs who have the required expertise and infrastructure to complement our activities. MIPS and Peach Payments are two examples of businesses we have partnered with that have successfully addressed the growing Discussions with the Group CEO
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