Role Overview:

We are looking for an experienced credit risk professional to lead the development, implementation and continuous enhancement of rural credit policies across secured and unsecured lending products. The role will be responsible for establishing robust underwriting frameworks, managing portfolio risk, strengthening credit quality and enabling sustainable business growth across rural and semi-urban markets.

The incumbent will work closely with Business, Credit, Collections, Product, Analytics, Operations and Compliance teams to ensure a balance between business expansion, risk-adjusted returns and portfolio quality.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Rural Credit Policy & Underwriting:

- Develop, review and implement credit policies, underwriting frameworks and credit programs for rural and semi-urban lending portfolios.

- Establish appropriate eligibility criteria, credit assessment parameters, exposure limits, deviation frameworks and approval matrices.

- Design policies for secured and unsecured lending products, including rural MSME, microfinance, micro-LAP, LAP, home loans, agriculture-linked lending and other applicable retail credit products.

- Review existing credit policies based on portfolio performance, changing market conditions and emerging risk trends.

2. Portfolio Risk Management:

- Monitor portfolio quality, delinquency trends, roll rates, vintage performance, collection efficiency and credit losses across product segments.

- Identify emerging risks through portfolio analytics, early warning indicators and stress testing.

- Recommend corrective actions, policy changes and risk mitigation strategies to improve portfolio quality.

- Monitor concentration risk, geographic exposure, customer segments and product-level risk performance.

3. Credit Analytics & Risk Frameworks:

- Leverage data analytics, bureau insights, scorecards and behavioural models to strengthen credit assessment and decision-making.

- Develop risk-based underwriting strategies for new and existing customer segments.

- Partner with analytics and technology teams to improve credit decision systems, automated underwriting and policy implementation.

- Track key risk metrics and prepare portfolio reviews and management dashboards.

4. Business & Product Partnership:

- Work closely with Business and Product teams to develop scalable credit solutions for underserved and emerging rural customer segments.

- Assess new products, customer segments, sourcing channels and geographies from a credit risk perspective.

- Establish appropriate risk-return parameters while supporting responsible business growth.

- Evaluate policy exceptions and ensure adherence to the defined delegation of authority.

5. Governance & Regulatory Compliance:

- Ensure credit policies and processes align with applicable RBI regulations, internal risk frameworks and organisational guidelines.

- Present portfolio performance, policy changes and emerging risk matters to senior management and relevant governance committees.

- Coordinate with Audit, Compliance and other stakeholders on credit observations, policy reviews and remediation.

- Maintain appropriate documentation, controls and governance standards across the credit lifecycle.

6. Leadership & Stakeholder Management:

- Lead and mentor credit policy and portfolio risk professionals.

- Drive collaboration across Business, Credit Operations, Collections, Product, Analytics and Technology teams.

- Build a strong risk culture focused on prudent lending, consistent policy adherence and sustainable portfolio growth.

Desired Candidate Profile:

- Qualification: MBA/PGDM in Finance, CA, or an equivalent qualification in Finance, Risk Management or a related discipline.

- Experience: Typically 12 - 18+ years of experience in credit risk, credit policy, underwriting or portfolio risk management within banks, NBFCs or Small Finance Banks.

- Strong experience in rural lending, microfinance, inclusive banking, MSME lending or other rural/semi-urban credit portfolios.

- Demonstrated expertise in credit policy formulation, portfolio monitoring, risk assessment and underwriting frameworks.

- Exposure to secured and unsecured lending products, preferably including microfinance, Micro-LAP, LAP, home loans, agriculture-linked finance and rural MSME lending.

- Strong understanding of credit analytics, early warning systems, delinquency monitoring and risk mitigation.

- Experience working with senior management and risk governance committees.

- Strong stakeholder management, analytical, decision-making and leadership capabilities.

Key Success Metrics:

- Improvement in portfolio quality and reduction in credit losses.

- Effective monitoring of delinquency, vintage and early warning indicators.

- Timely review and enhancement of credit policies.

- Improved underwriting consistency and risk-adjusted portfolio growth.

- Effective implementation of credit controls and governance standards.

- Development of scalable risk frameworks for rural and underserved customer segments.

Ideal Candidate:

- A senior credit risk leader from an NBFC, SFB or bank with strong rural credit policy experience, a sound understanding of secured and unsecured lending, and a proven track record of managing portfolio risk while enabling sustainable business growth.