Monday, June 22, 2009

Big companies try to revive zero interest consumer loan market

The big banks like CitiFinancial, ICICI Bank and GE Money have complete stopped giving loans for consumer goods since then zero interest loans have become a thing of the past. But now the major consumer durable companies are trying to revive back the concept of zero interest consumer loans in order to attract more customers. According to the report printed in Financial Chronicle companies like Samsung, Videocon and LG on their own trying to bring it back. For this these companies have signed agreements with non-banking finance companies to offer easy loans to consumers.

Amit Gupta Vice President-Sales, Videocon, said, "About 10 percent of the company's sales depended on easy consumer loans with tenures ranging from 11-18 months." By and large, the companies will bear the interest amount, which will pay the financiers at a rate of nearly five percent.

The industry sources say, Bajaj Finance and Shriram Finance have just now entered the easy loans market and trying to take hold of the opportunity. Previously the major financial institutions have suffered losses therefore decided to focus less on the segment of consumer loans.