Fair Practices Code

FAIR PRACTICES CODE

Fair Practices Code for Lenders

Lenders are expected to follow the following Fair Practice Code for participating on the platform. The following are re-iterated in various communications to the lenders.

Read and understand the Faircent Policy and Terms of Use before registering.
Not borrow money to lend, either from this platform or otherwise.
Honor their commitments and not renege on their loan offers after listing it on our site.
Not pester borrowers during the course of or after the completion of the deal. This would include not communicating directly for loan recovery, not pestering about additional details in attempt to personally verify borrower’s credentials etc.
In case of any borrower’s default, lenders will only deal with approved legal advisors.
Lenders will adhere to all laws relating to income tax and pay taxes on the income so generated.
Lenders will confirm that they understanding the risk associated with lending on our platform: A prior confirmation is taken from the lenders to ensure that they understand the risks associated with lending on the platform and that there is no guarantee of return on the principal invested and that there exists a likelihood of loss of entire principal in case of default by a borrower.
The lenders are responsible for all and any decision that they take to lend through Faircent and Faircent does not take any responsibility for default in any borrower.
The platform will not provide any assurance or guarantee for the recovery of loans.
The Lender understands that Faircent will not assume any credit risk, either directly or indirectly which arises out of the transactions carried out on its platform.
The Lender undertakes that the entire principal loss or any loss of interest or both, if any, with respect to the funds lent by the Lender on the Faircent platform shall be borne and paid by the Lenders.

Fair Practices Code for Borrowers

Borrowers are expected to follow the following Fair Practice Code for participating on the platform.

Read and understand the Faircent Policy and the Terms of Use before registering.
Not borrow money from our platform to lend on another platform.
The information and financial details submitted by him / her on our platform are true and correct.
They will not provide any information which is incorrect or materially impairs the decision of Faircent to register him / her on the platform.
They abide by all the terms & conditions mentioned in the legal agreement signed by them.
Borrowers are made aware that information shared by them will be shared with the Faircent lenders. In addition, the information about the loan and the loan performance will also be shared with the credit bureaus which may affect their credit score.

Fair Practices Code for Faircent Staff

Due diligence is done for all the participants registered with us either as a lender or as a borrower. For this purpose, the personal, professional & employment details are collected from the participants.
Personal data usage – Information relating to the participants received by the platform will not be disclosed to any third party without the consent of the participant.
Personal Identity disclosure – Lenders personal identity & contact details will not be disclosed to the borrower, however the borrowers details will be disclosed to the lenders by Faircent.
Marketing and promotion – Peer-to-peer lending will not be promoted as an investment product with features like tenure-linked assured minimum returns, liquidity options, etc. The name of the Company (as mentioned in the Certificate of Registration) along with its brand name will be explicitly mentioned in all touchpoints/customer interfaces, including promotional materials and any communication with stakeholders/participants.
Transparency – Lenders are made available with borrower's details including personal identity, loan details and Faircent credit score to take informed decision before investing in any borrower. Borrowers are made available with their eligible loan details, lender's proposals on loan amount & ROI, time taken for disbursement and applicable terms & conditions.
Non-discrimination – Any borrower can be funded by any lender registered on the platform. Lenders can make offers to fund borrower’s requirement which are accepted on first come first serve basis. Thus, lenders can fund a portion of the total loan requirement of multiple borrowers and borrowers can seek to raise money from multiple lenders.
Capping on maximum lending – Maximum lending by a lender to a particular borrower should be capped to a maximum amount as specified by the regulator or at such a level to ensure more than 1 lender funds each loan.
Same offer for all lenders – Risk bracket (which is an outcome of the Faircent credit score) is same for all the lenders. Tenure at which borrower is made live cannot be changed and is fixed by the platform as per the loan eligibility.
No discrimination based on gender, cast, religion – There is no discrimination in selection of borrowers and lenders. The credit scores arrived at by the platform is based on the financial behavior of a borrower and does not include factors such as gender, race or religion.
Recoveries from default borrowers: Our staff and outsourced agencies are adequately trained to deal in an appropriate manner with defaulting borrower. We and our agents shall not resort to intimidation or harassment of any kind, either verbal or physical, against any person in their debt collection efforts, including acts intended to humiliate publicly or intrude upon the privacy of the debtors' family members, referees and friends, sending inappropriate messages either on mobile or through social media, making threatening and/ or anonymous calls, persistently calling the borrower and/ or calling the borrower before 8:00 a.m. and after 7:00 p.m. for recovery of overdue loans, making false and misleading representations, etc.
Periodic review of Fair Practices Code: We ensure that there are mechanisms at various levels of the management to do periodic review of the compliance of the Fair Practices Code and the functioning of the grievances redressal.

Fair Practices Code for Outsourced Borrower Onboarding Staff

Mis-selling – The onboarding team should not do any verbal or written communication that amounts to mis-selling or mis-quoting the loan terms.
Grievance redressal – The customer should be made aware of the grievance redressal mechanism and escalation matrix.
Data usage and data privacy – The outsourced agency should have a policy on place for usage of customer data and keeping the data private and confidential at all times. The data should not be stored in any local system or external storage devices.
Solicitation and calling hours – The agency should not exert undue pressure for soliciting the business nor do persistent calling or calling at odd hours for converting the customers.

Fair Practices Code for Outsourced Recovery Staff

Grievance redressal – The customer should be made aware of the grievance redressal mechanism and escalation matrix.
Data usage and data privacy – The outsourced agency should have a policy on place for usage of customer data and keeping the data private and confidential at all times. The data should not be stored in any local system or external storage devices.
Calling hours – The agents or its employees shall not resort to intimidation or harassment of any kind, either verbal or physical, against any person in their debt collection efforts, including acts intended to humiliate publicly or intrude upon the privacy of the debtors' family members, referees and friends, sending inappropriate messages either on mobile or through social media, making threatening and/ or anonymous calls, persistently calling the borrower and/ or calling the borrower before 8:00 a.m. and after 7:00 p.m. for recovery of overdue loans, making false and misleading representations, etc.
Humility – the agency should show utmost humility to the borrowers circumstances and not resort to threatening tone of voice or intrude the privacy of the borrowers or borrower’s family members.