A summer internship is a good way to judge whether a profession is for you or not. I was given an opportunity to intern with fintree finance Pvt Ltd (NBFC) as a credit analyst intern. Fintree Finance Impact Lender based out of Mumbai which aims to bring about the upliftment of MSME segment in India by helping them with much needed financial inclusion and cause a positive social impact. They provide short-tenure loans to merchants based on the digital payments that happen at their outlets.
Loan against Digital payments is a short-term credit facility extended to merchants who have a Point-Of-Sale (POS) machine installed at their premises. Fintree Finance uses its in-house technology platform, coupled with strong analytics and algorithms for origination, underwriting & disbursal of loans and helping this MSME segment, enter the formal credit system and improve their credit profiles.
The main objective of the study is to analyze the functioning of Fintree Finance and make suggestions for strengthening Fintree´s SME Portfolio. This is used to yield positive results and set a favorable trend is credit expansion under SME sector.
Being a fresher, this internship opportunity was my first experience into the corporate world and it was indeed a good one. Being a startup, I got a unique growth opportunity. Big companies can offer employees lots of money, lots of perks, and in some cases, lots of equity. A startup's advantage is that their employees have responsibility, room to grow and the ability to learn new things. The people at Fintree were really helpful and supportive throughout my internship duration. One of the best advantages of a startup is its open door policy. Even an intern can easily go to the CEO and ask him for help in case of any issue which was one of the best perks of working at Fintree.
Being a credit analyst intern, my job role was to assess the creditworthiness of a new merchant by checking the financial and non-financial aspects. I undertook the task of studying a loan disbursement case from the perspective of a credit associate. All the observations, difficulties faced and multiple solutions on it were discussed with my reporting manager. I had a hands on experience on the process of a new client from the initial stage till disbursement. Also went on some of the client meetings to get hands-on experience about understanding customer requirement and providing a solution with respect to the product offered by Fintree.
All this give me broader insights into working of an SME Department of an NBFC and broadening my area of study under the project. I have worked on various cases of different industries and in the coming days will learn more about the entire process of sanctioning the loan to a company.
My company mentor, Mr Bishaw Deo Mishra was a great support throughout the internship. A self-driven detail oriented competent professional with extensive experience of over 10 years across locations in profit centre management, microcredit branch operations and business development. He taught me a lot in this duration of 2 months and help me in understanding how a startup culture works.
