Lending The Midas Touch

The growth story of Manish Jaiswal has been stupendous. Growing up  in a small town had made him wise enough to understand the struggles of many who look up to the bank to start their entrepreneurial journey. Their struggles are mostly around the lack of papers and hordes of documents that the banks ask for. Jaiswal was aware of  the pain and  the gaps that needed to be addressed.
“I viewed this assignment as an opportunity to pursue my passion. As I come from a humble background, so I understand the miseries of micro-entrepreneurs of small towns. I have many real-life examples of  middle class people,” he told BW Businessworld.

When it comes to excellence, it is always driven by purpose, and he aptly adds, “When you have a purpose that drives your agenda, you leave no stone unturned to make an impact and provide dignified lives to the people. In the case of several entrepreneurs, provide them with proper cash flow so that they can impact much more people in their own ecosystem, rather than one individual.”
His domain experience of over 27 years in banking & financial services industry is dotted with many turnaround stories.

Jaiswal in his prior stints is credited with setting up and building SME businesses from inception or turning them around, for almost a decade and a half. He has held key positions in companies such as Eicher Motors, Citigroup, Fullerton (a Temasek company), Dhanlaxmi  Bank and Crisil. During his career span, Jaiswal has built and managed assets of more than Rs 20,000 crore of SME secured portfolio and been involved in ratings of over 1,50,000 SME entities.

His efforts are also reflected in the balance sheets. Magma Fincorp posted a 28.27 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 304 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2019, compared to Rs 237 crore in the previous fiscal. The growth came on the back of a sharp decline in non-performing assets (NPAs), and stable net interest margins (NIM).

At Magma, his initiatives have added tremendously to the inherent value system of the bank which is about improving the quality of lives of the people. He recalls, “After coming to Magma, I noticed it is extremely well connected with semi-urban and rural, self-employed people, who have either no or very poor quality of documents. No one will give them loans on the basis of these documents.”
His approach based on such understanding further streamlined the operational efficiency with results which speak volumes about the growth story of Magma.

Starting out as an engineer, Jaiswal had great exposure at Crisil where he was hired as a fresher. “I became familiar with risk management and I was also advising groups like EPFO, PFRDA. I learned equity research, risk management and SME ratings,” he says.
Talking about his stint with the world of banking and finance at Citi bank, he adds. “At Citi Bank, I actually learned banking. I was never a banker. But at Citi, I really learned the fundamentals of banking and was able to bring corporate banking products to the transportation sector.”

He later got various challenging opportunities including being an SME business. And this is what keeps Jaiswal at the forefront of his domain. He simply likes what he does. That is his mantra.