In 1995, Citibank was looking out for Chartered Accountants who could assist them in updating their security papers received from clients against loans given by the bank. Prashant Ashar, a Chartered Accountant in practice till then, seized this opportunity driven by his entrepreneurial spirit, and never looked back since then! PAMAC was formed to not only update all their security papers in a three month project but also recommend a process by which similar problems could be avoided. That process became a standard template with all the banks thereafter. Thus Citibank was the first client, of course, after 3 months of motivated action!

As demand for these small pilot projects grew, the team decided to fully focus on growing these-services itself, in a true “smell the business” fashion that smart entrepreneurs adopt. The key pattern seemed to be that most of the work was in Financial Analysis and Risk Mitigation services and the organization started building capability in these areas. Thus began the entrepreneurship to establish credible and effective business process services at PAMAC!

The Two Decades of Service

From these simple beginnings, in the intervening 20 years, PAMAC has grown to 2500+ employees in the core businesses across six lines of business and another 5000+ employees who provide resource and processing support for various banks. PAMAC has centres today with servicing facilities in over 30 cities with a capability to service 170+ cities through a hub and spoke model; and has become international with 2 more offices – in UAE and Malaysia! Not just the size of the organization, but also the enviable Client list that is amazing – every single leading bank in the country trusts PAMAC and banks on their credentials, successfully completing 20 years of valued partnership with one of the most critical and crucial sectors – BFSI.

The story of how credible and effective Business Process Services
enabled to build PAMAC as a trend setting and growing
organization with 20 years of excellent track record, 7500+
employees and spread over 3 countries!!

PAMAC is one stop shop for clients delivering an array of services ranging from “Credit Processing & Appraisal, Customer Profile Validation, Document Collection & Review, Fraud & Risk control, Transaction Processing to Resource Management & Payment Processing.”

All of this without any external funding while managing the normal working capital limits specified by banks is simply outstanding! In addition to our reach, our partnership with Senior Consultants in the industry and Centralized Processing capabilities differentiates us from our competitors. More so, the decision of setting up the internal software teams allows us to ensure our focus on technology is very important, which in turn helps us to bring about process efficiency and reduce turnaround time specifically in field verification and scanning base processing.

The PAMAC Edge

PAMAC owes its success and ability to stand strong and shining to all the people who were instrumental in shaping the beliefs and helped assess every situation correctly to take right decision.

Professionalism is the key take away from dealing with banks and insurance companies over the years. It encompasses all parameters like deliverables, timeline and resource commitments, process documentation, review and audit mechanism, ownership of responsibilities and focus on outcomes. PAMAC is a part of the whole ecosystem which believes in providing best in class services through continuous innovation and commitment to excel.

Recalling the foundation of PAMAC, Managing Director, Prashant Ashar says, “My father believed in keeping things simple and taking small corrective steps every day, instead of looking for grand solutions to complex problems. One of my school teachers taught me that trusting the right people and giving them a free hand makes them more responsible and they would put in extra efforts to justify the faith which you have reposed in them. My guru at the CA firm where I did my apprenticeship for 3 years, made me realize that analyzing and understanding the problem accurately is equivalent to solving half the problem.”

One cannot find correct answers if efforts are not made to find out
the main issues on hand. – Prashant Ashar

The People & the Culture

The organization has grown as the people have managed to deliver and stand true to their name – Persistent, Agile, Meritocratic, Accessible and Collaborative. In order to keep pace with the large organization and the breadth of operations, the HR policies have evolved over a period of time to nurture this growth. PAMAC is diverse in the truest sense – not only in terms of multiple skills across different LOBs but also when it comes to age groups, gender, language and cultures, and keeping them engaged and focused towards the PAMAC vision.

Corporate Governance

Since BFSI clients bring in the major part of the business, it also signifies that PAMAC has been able to operate at a high degree of transparency and has adopted stringent standards for Corporate Governance. A major concern which all Banks and Insurance Companies have is that of data confidentiality and compliance to various Laws of the Land.

Business growth is predicated on the ability to attract and retain the
right people along with strategic alliance with business to provide
solutions that propel success.

PAMAC have consciously ensured that all client data is always kept in a secured environment and access rights are clearly documented. All Legal compliances are adhered to and all payments of government dues are done on time. Clients who need proof of such Compliances are provided with necessary documents regularly and the recon statements too are submitted to them. Most of the clients have independent auditors who conduct regular reviews to ensure compliance on data security and IT environment.

The Inflection Points to Growth

There have been many inflection points during this journey which have tested resilience and every opportunity only pushed PAMAC to perform at the highest level. All existing activities too evolved and changed over time, calling for tools to review, adapt and improve the solution offered at every stage of growth.

One of the key challenges was to build infrastructure in multiple cities and organize teams to manage execution and delivery from distant locations. Currently, PAMAC covers more than 170 cities across India by way of 'Hub and Spoke' model, delivering solutions to clients staying close to them at the local level.

Expanding and setting up UAE operations was a challenging experience that took almost 5 years to break even and establish in the overseas market. This learning enabled the leadership to take a cautious approach when decision was taken to grow the business to SE Asia through the hub at Kuala Lumpur.

People are unsuccessful not because they did not try enough but
because they did not try long enough! – Prashant Ashar

Like many of the BFSI companies, the economic downturn from 2008 to 2010 tested their ability to survive in a very depressing financial market and the focus then was on 'redefining processes and diversifying portfolio of services' to survive and grow. Parting ways with one of the promoter directors in 2012 was a tough phase; though vitalizing the company thereafter was a rewarding experience.

The Pathway to Excellence

Being with the Company from inception, Pravin Shinde, currently the COO, PAMAC explains that despite changing economic conditions, the future of the organization looks promising as each of the businesses is well poised for sustainable and profitable growth. “With 30+ branch offices in far flung areas of India, there is no question on the plethora of issues that arise due to the spread of operations across the country. However, I would prefer to say that operational difficulties disappear when the customers appreciate our connect with them through our proximity of presence. We are the one-stop shop for our BFSI clients, delivering an array of services.” PAMAC set up their internal software teams to ensure focus on technology and help to bring about process efficiency and reduce turn-around time for their clients, specifically in field verification and scan-based processing.

For Prashant Ashar and the PAMAC team, these two decades (1995 to 2015) have been a worthy journey from simple beginnings and entrepreneurship to overcoming tough challenges to deliver results and achieve excellence. He believes that, “People are unsuccessful not because they did not try enough but because they did not try long enough!” Prashant firmly acknowledges that perseverance is the best ladder for long term success in entrepreneurship. Hard work and smart choices will prevail only when one has the courage and determination to move ahead in spite of severe challenges, unexpected losses and depressing failures. The knowledge and the drive to create value that led to the establishment of PAMAC, is continuing to grow through collaborative partnership with their clients and the commitment of leadership and team to provide solutions, par excellence!

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