Bajaj Finance to bring down telemarketing calls, to offer opt-out option

Bajaj Finserv, which is knows for its aggressive marketing through pesky mobile calls has announced the introduction of an opt-out option for telemarketing calls.

Sanjiv Bajaj, CMD, Bajaj Finserv, emphasized the company's commitment to protecting customer privacy. With the new feature, clients will have the choice to avoid unwanted telemarketing calls by simply opting out.

“Our aim would ideally be to bring this business down to 10 percent, and then to zero percent…so that our calls will only be service calls,” said Bajaj, during a press conference at the launch of Bajaj Finserv Asset Management Company in Mumbai.

According to reports, currently, around 15% of Bajaj Finance’s loan book has been built of loans that are solicited (or pushed) to customers.

The company’s aggressive marketing push to build its loan book has made it the subject of social memes. To be sure, telemarketing calls to sell loans is widely practiced in India’s financial services industry.

Bajaj Finserv enters mutual fund business

Meanwhile, diversified financial services group Bajaj Finserv is entering the highly competitive mutual funds business and has plans to make it big over the next few years, drawing in on the 'late mover advantage'.

To begin with, the company is launching three schemes in the fixed income, liquid and money market products by the end of the month, and will have four more soon, depending on the regulatory approvals, group chairman and managing director Sanjiv Bajaj told reporters here on Tuesday, announcing its entry into the mutual funds' segment.

The group's ninth entity Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund will compete with 40 others in the sector, which together manage as much as Rs 40 lakh crore of public money.

The group, with its existing eight subsidiaries, offers a suite of financial products to close to 70 million customers, and it wants to tap into the same customers for the new business, Bajaj said.