Non-banking financial companies have grown into an important channel for extending credit to segments of the population that conventional banks often do not reach, and Manappuram Finance Limited, with its long-standing gold-loan franchise, is a prominent example of this trend. This article reports on a study of how customers of Manappuram Finance perceive the risks associated with its services, drawing on primary data gathered through a twenty-item questionnaire administered to more than one hundred and sixty respondents. Risk was examined across several dimensions, including the security of pledged assets, the transparency of loan policies, the pace of credit approval, the perceived effectiveness of credit-risk management, and the extent to which technology is seen to support the company's risk controls. Chi-square tests were used to examine whether risk perception followed any dominant pattern, and whether it varied by gender or was associated with customers' views on policy transparency and technology adoption. The results indicate that customer opinion is spread fairly evenly across response categories on most items, with no single perception dominating, and that none of the tested factors — gender, transparency perception, or technology perception — showed a statistically significant association with risk perception or risk awareness. Awareness of the company's risk-management practices was found to be limited, split almost evenly between informed and uninformed customers, and confidence in the technological dimension of risk management was notably weak. Despite these gaps, a substantial majority of respondents expressed willingness to recommend the company to others, suggesting that overall trust remains largely intact even where specific concerns persist. The study closes with suggestions for improving communication, transparency and technology adoption to further strengthen customer confidence.
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