Finance Companies: An introduction

Finance companies are referred to as corporations or partnerships which are formed to offer credit facilities for household consumers and/or industries through commercial papers, mortgages, leasing of properties, etc. The primary function of finance companies is to make loans to individuals and corporations. . Financial companies do not offer deposit services; rather they source their funds through borrowing from banks and other money market sources by issuing commercial papers and bonds. Due to its dependence on borrowed money for sourcing, finance companies hold more equity than banks for the purpose of signaling solvency to potential creditors.
Finance companies offer loans of small denomination to consumers and since they have quite high credit rating, they are able to borrow at a low interest rate from other lending institutions and therefore are able to offer their loans at reasonable rates. They are different from banks in that they provide loans and credit facilities to consumers and firms who otherwise have a non-sufficient credit record to secure loans from banks; however the interest rate they charge is higher than banks.
The emergence of finance companies was mainly due to bank’s refusal to lend out small loans to firms and consumers. Finance companies has since then evolved to provide both sales-finance and consumer loan services. Sales-finance companies mainly operate by purchasing unpaid customer accounts at a discount from sales firms, and collecting payments due from the customers on a periodic basis therefore providing installment financing to consumers and firms. Finance companies generally tend to interest rate sensitive, i.e., any increase or decrease in the market interest rates have high influence in their profitability.
Types of finance companies
The three major types of finance companies are –