In just 10 days, Bajaj Finance had lost 350,000 customers and almost 50 billion rupees ($651 million) in assets under management In the second week of April, deep into India’s initial 21-day lockdown to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, senior officials at Bajaj Finance Ltd.
held a conference call. The prognosis wasn’t good. In just 10 days the keystone shadow lender had lost 350,000 customers and almost 50 billion rupees ($651 million) in assets under management.
Small and medium enterprises were under strain and it was considering setting aside money for losses in case large borrowers went under. “We are in an uncharted zone," Rajeev Jain, managing director of the Pune-based company, said on the call.