India’s TOP 500 Companies 2021

INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2021 135 Experts’ View HDFC is India’s largest housing finance company in the country. What has been the success mantra of the company? How would you summarize the company’s journey since its inception? Housing is our core business and our experience of over four decades has helped us establish a brand which is trustworthy. We have always been a customer-centric company and have looked at building long-term customer relationships. The cornerstone of HDFC’s success emerges from our unrelenting focus on corporate governance, ethics and clarity of vision. Our success mantra has always been to adapt to changes quickly and capitalise on the opportunities that come our way. For example, the current Covid-19 crisis has acted as a catalyst in transforming our business processes. We introduced a number of digital and online initiatives to reach out to our customers. In fact, in the housing finance space, we were the first ones to focus on online loan processing, which has helped us during the lockdown. Today over 80% of our retail loans are online up from less than 25% before the pandemic. What are some of the company’s key products and offerings? What is the company’s outlook over the next 3-5 years? HDFC provides home loans for new, resale and construction of houses, home renovation, home extension, plot loans, rural housing finance and loans to customers belonging to the unorganized sector via ‘HDFC Reach’. HDFC offers non- residential premises loans for buying / constructing of office space, shops, etc. Each product is customized to suit the diverse requirements of individual customers. HDFC provides savings products with maturities ranging from 12 to 120 months. HDFC also offers home loans and other products to NRIs and PIOs. According to me, the outlook for the company and for the housing sector looks very promising for multiple reasons viz., lower penetration of mortages, favorable demographics, increase in disposable income, lower interest rates, stable property prices and focus on housing by government through PMAY. Also what COVID has done is that it has made it even more necessary for people to look for bigger houses. What are some of the company’s key ESG initiatives in recent years? Beyond the realm of housing finance, we at HDFC believe in having a strong emphasis on environment, social and governance. • HDFC signed a MOU with the CII’s Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) to promote green buildings in the country. HDFC intends to work with IGBC to create awareness and promote financing to green buildings in the country which will help in reducing carbon footprints and safeguarding the environment. • HDFC has undertaken Environment & Social due diligence approach to create awareness across its corporate borrowers towards adopting best practices as well as being an environment and social compliant. • Through our CSR initiatives, we have supported vulnerable communities affected by COVID-19 across various states across India. Our support covered healthcare equipment, medical supplies and food relief in rural/tribal locations, transit camps, slums, informal settlements, charitable hospitals, police and homes for the elderly. HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION LIMITED Renu Sud Karnad Managing Director Dun & Bradstreet