Piramal Finance

The company was originally started as DHFL by Rajesh Kumar Wadhawan on 11 April 1984. The name of the company was changed to Dewan Housing Development Finance Ltd. and later to Dewan Housing Finance Corporation. In 2010, DHFL acquired Deutsche Postbank Home Finance unit for ₹1079 crores. On 18 December 2013, DHFL acquired 74% stake DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd. On 29 January 2019, Cobrapost, an Indian investigative journalist group, published an exposé of DHFL for using various shell corporations to siphon more than ₹ 31,000 crores of public money for the personal gains of the DHFL's primary stakeholders: Kapil Wadhawan, Aruna Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan. In the same article, Cobrapost also raised allegations of political donations worth crores of rupees, in violation of Section 182 of Companies Act, 2013 for political donations. Even after the emergence of serious allegations of misconduct against its business, the Indian credit rating agencies continued to issue high safety ratings for the DHFL financial products, but, on 6 June 2019, DHFL defaulted on its debt repayment, resulting in a debt rating downgrade, immediately wiping out 16% of the value from its stock price. At the time, the fall in DHFL stock price was an all year low. This rapid decline in stock price resulted in a loss of investor confidence. On 20 November 2019, the Reserve Bank of India removed the board of directors of the company citing corporate governance failure and the company's defaulted payment obligations. 2021: Acquisition by Piramal Piramal Finance Limited was established following the acquisition of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) by Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited (PCHFL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Limited. The acquisition was completed in September 2021 under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), with a total consideration of ₹34,250 crore. It marked the first resolution of a financial services company through the IBC process in India. Subsequently, the company surrendered its HFC license and was renamed Piramal Finance Limited. Following this regulatory shift, the company relinquished its HFC license and was renamed Piramal Finance Limited. This reclassification aligns with its strategic focus on expanding retail and MSME lending across India. In May 2025, Piramal Enterprises Limited announced a proposed merger of Piramal Finance Limited with the parent entity. 2025: Developments In May 2025, Piramal Enterprises announced a proposed merger of Piramal Finance into the parent company to streamline operations and improve capital efficiency. == Operations ==

As of August 2024, Piramal Finance operated more than 500 branches across 500+ cities in India, serving over 4.7 million customers. The company provides financial products including home loans, loan against property, MSME loans, used vehicle finance, and working capital solutions. It also partners with public and private sector banks under co-lending models. In April 2025, Piramal Finance entered a co-lending partnership with ICICI Bank targeting rural and semi-urban borrowers. ==Products and services==

Piramal Finance Limited provides financial services across retail, MSME, and corporate segments. Its offerings include home loans, personal loans, used vehicle finance, and business loans, primarily targeting underserved markets through branch and digital channels. The company also participates in affordable housing initiatives under government schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). While it previously had a wholesale lending portfolio, its current focus is on expanding retail operations. Piramal Finance has also entered co-lending partnerships, including a 2025 collaboration with ICICI Bank to improve credit access in rural and semi-urban areas. ==Subsidiaries==

Pramerica life insurance Pramerica Life Insurance Limited is a joint venture between Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Limited (PCHFL) and Prudential International Insurance Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Inc., USA. The company was established on September 1, 2008, as DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd. joint venture between DLF Limited & Prudential Financial. ==Legal matters and controversies==

SEBI insider-trading investigation In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Board of India concluded a settlement with the former managing director of Piramal Capital & Housing Finance and associated parties in relation to an investigation into alleged insider trading in shares of Piramal Enterprises. The settlement involved the payment of approximately ₹43.5 crore without admission or denial of wrongdoing under SEBI's settlement mechanism. Financial irregularities and probes against DHFL In 2019, DHFL stopped payment of bonds and defaulted on its loan obligations. This caused its stock to fall over 97% and a government intervention in the company. In August 2019, as efforts to draft a resolution plan by restructuring DHFL debt into equity, a few of the DHFL bond holders moved to the debt recovery tribunal, which could impact the resolution process. The company meanwhile offered to repay all investors in full with due process of inter-creditor-agreement. In October 2019, the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at several places of DHFL offices and promoter residences and found links of money laundering activity in loans given to firms closely linked to the promoters of the company. Additionally the trail of the loan given by DHFL to Sunblink real estate in 2010 lead to gangster Iqbal Mirchi, an accomplice of the organized crime mastermind Dawood Ibrahim. On 20 November 2019, under Section 45-IE (I) of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Indian central bank removed the board of directors of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL). The reasons cited by the banking regulator for the dismissal of the DHFL board of directors were: inadequate governance and the various defaults on its payment obligations. On 27 January 2020, the promoter of DHFL, Kapil Wadhawan was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The arrest was connected to his firm's alleged involvement in providing loans to the organized criminal enterprise of Dawood Ibrahim. On 22 February 2020, the PMLA court granted bail to Kapil Wadhwan. The Bombay high court upheld the bail decision by PMLA court, rejecting Indian Enforcement Directorate requests to stay the bail application. The ED has linked Yes Bank for various fraud and transactions amounting to 3700 crores as debentures in DHFL. The central bank appointed administrator at Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) has ordered a transaction audit at the non-bank lender after allegations of money laundering surfaced in the aftermath of the regulatory action on Yes Bank. On 24 March 2021, CBI filed a new suit against DHFL and its promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, wherein the later were accused of syphoning off the welfare subsidy fund of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by creating 260,000 fake home loan accounts under the same scheme under the guise of a non-existent branch. The suit says, fake loans were granted worth ₹14,046 crore of which ₹11,755.79 crore were routed to shell corporations and citing these loans, subsidy amounts were claimed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. In September 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached DHFL assets worth in a bank fraud case. == References ==