Established 20 years ago in the Czech Republic, Home Credit has gone through quite a transformation. Growing from a small non-banking lender in 1997 to a leading provider of point-of-sale (POS) loans for durable goods in Russia and some Asian countries, Home Credit now serves 23.5 million customers worldwide.
A portfolio business of Czech businessman Petr Kellner’s PPF Group, Home Credit expanded first into Slovakia and in 2002 expanded into the large Russian market. Jiri Smejc, now Home Credit’s chairman of the board of directors and chief executive, took a 5% stake in PPF in 2005 (which he has since sold) and then joined to run Home Credit’s Russian operations.
