1)     Job Purpose

The purpose of this job is to execute and drive regional risk and credit operations as per established frameworks and processes for effective and efficient loan underwriting across ABHFL service offerings, enhancing portfolio health and business sustainability. This position leads regional risk management and underwriting operations, taking approval decisions as per approval matrix and ensuring team performance to ensure creditworthiness and effective project/ transaction risk assessment. The Regional Credit Manager is also expected to drive coordination with regional Sales, Operations and ABFL Risk teams via proactive liaising with relevant stakeholders and alignment to ensure sound risk management operations

2) Dimensions 

What are the areas (in quantitative terms) the job has an impact on?

Function

Dept.

Section

Remarks

(As applicable)

1.

Manpower (Nos.)

A

Management 

B

Staff

C

Worker

D

Contract

Total

2.

Other Relevant Parameters

(Capacity/ Volumes/ Budget)

A

Loan Approval Limit

B

Process/ SOP adherence

C

NPA%

Organizational Context

Key Aspects:

1. Part of the Aditya Birla Financial Service Group (ABFSG), Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited (ABHFL) is registered with the National Housing Bank as a housing finance company under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987. The company offers a complete range of housing finance solutions such as home loans, home improvement and home construction loans, balance transfer and top-up loans, loans against property and construction finance. The company acquired its license on 9^th July 2014 and has aggressive growth plans.
2. ABHFL operates in the Rs. 11.4 trillion Indian Housing Finance market, which has grown at a steady rate of 17% CAGR over the last 3 years while reporting good asset quality despite challenges in the operating environment. While the industry is dominated by five large groups, there has been an emergence of newer entrants in niche segments like affordable housing and self-employed borrowers, given the high potential in these segments. Despite increased focus by banks, HFCs have been able to maintain their share in the mortgage market and has remained stable at ~37% as on December 2015.
3. The nature of the HFC business (dealing largely with retail customers in the potentially sensitive area of housing/ mortgages), along with the additional regulatory and control mechanisms imposed as a result, means it is imperative that all functions and processes align and comply with sound risk management guidelines and applicable regulations/ controls proactively and judiciously. This is vital for managing risk and protecting interests of both the business as well as the customer.

Job Context

Key Aspects:

1. The Risk team provides core underwriting services fundamental to the ABHFL business health, risk management and sustainability. Structured as a dual to the Sales/ Sourcing team, with positions mapped against corresponding Sales roles across the organization, the Risk team is responsible for necessary controls and process checks to ensure business performance and health.
2. While the core responsibility for this function is to control the business via robust underwriting and risk management, supporting business expansion via joint evaluation of different product/ market growth proposals with the Sales team is also an important contribution.
3. The Regional Credit Manager plays the role of driving risk and credit operations in line with established guidelines and norms, and securing the organization against diverse risks in the course of regional business operations. This role is responsible for ensuring robust and efficient creditworthiness and risk assessment, and driving efficient and aligned operations for sound business decisions (loan approval/ rejection, business expansion, etc.)

Key Challenges

1. While the ABFL Mortgages team also works with retail customers in the property space, the ABHFL business is exposed to the additional Construction Risk, i.e. risk from under construction projects not getting completed as planned. The Risk Team must factor for this when designing and executing control mechanisms, and evaluating business proposals.
2. ABHFL is in its inception phase as a company and in the midst of rapid growth. The Risk function must therefore be able to balance priorities of risk management and business growth efficiently, without increasing sub-prime exposures or impacting business health and sustainability.
3. The housing space is characterized by state-wise norms and business practices, as well as varied interpretations of regulatory guidelines by different stakeholders. It is therefore essential for Risk function team members to remain up to date on business practices/ norms in their respective regions/ states and work within regulatory guidelines in a manner that minimizes business risk and also supports growth objectives.

Enabling Skill Sets & Qualifications

1. Critical skill sets required to meet these challenges include strong business and commercial acumen, analytical skills, good stakeholder management and presentation skills, and team management and execution capabilities.
2. Education & experience required to fulfil this profile are a CA/ MBA – Finance with minimum 8 – 12 yrs of experience in a bank/ NBFC/ HFC, of which at least recent 4 - 5 yrs experience should be in managing risk and underwriting in an HFC.

4) Principal Accountabilities

Underwriting and Portfolio Quality Management

1. Implement and oversee execution of regional risk and credit operations in adherence with defined frameworks and principles across ABHFL business lines
2. Liaise with relevant stakeholders (Sales, Operations) and escalate appropriately for efficient coordination and decision making on specific proposals/ escalation cases
3. Ensure appropriate assessment of Construction Risk and adequate liaising with ABFL Risk team members for Legal-Technical evaluations and clarifications in complex cases, as required
4. Communicate with and guide team members on specific cases/ exceptions, providing insights on technical aspects as well as state/ property specific considerations for effective risk assessment
5. Evaluate and approve proposals as per defined approval matrix, and assist team members on specific approval cases as required

Process Efficiency

1. Drive process efficiency through the team across different risk operations, acting as a business enabler without compromising on risk management imperatives
2. Work as per and guide team members towards process-driven coordination mechanisms with Sales and Operations teams for effective decision making and problem solving in line with business and risk management needs
3. Intervene in escalation/ exception cases, liaising as required with stakeholders in Sales and Operations teams and escalating to Zonal Head – Risk if required

Risk Compliance & Control

1. Ensure compliance with established risk management principles and norms via periodic and need based reviews of relevant MIS, reports, escalation case documents, etc.
2. Ensure regional operations are aligned with defined ‘Maker – Checker’ mechanism with Sales and Operations teams in a systematic manner, across key aspects such as exception approvals, collateral valuation, PDD completion, cheque bounce collections, etc.

Collection Efficiency

1. Work in alignment with process-driven mechanisms for coordination with the Collections/ Operations team on tracking delinquency cases and driving collections efficiently and effectively
2. Intervene as required on specific escalation cases for recovery and delinquency/ NPA avoidance; escalate to Zonal Head – Risk as required

Business Growth and Sustainability

1. Work in partnership with Sales and Operations colleagues on case based decision making, and drive the same partnership orientation down the line as well

Team & Internal Stakeholder Management

1. Guide and develop team members to facilitate better risk assessment, underwriting skills and internal stakeholder management via technical skill-up (e.g. proficiency on legal & technical documents, property business practices & norms, etc.) and help them achieve superior performance standards
2. Nominate teams for relevant technical and behavioral trainings/ seminars and work on self-development initiatives
3. Maintain relationships with internal stakeholders for smooth cross-functional coordination and alignment towards achievement of function and business objectives

5)     Job Purpose of Direct Reports 

Area Credit Managers

To execute risk assessment and underwriting operations in assigned region, in line with established practices and norms, and take proposal approval decisions as per approval matrix; to proactively communicate with Sales and Operations team colleagues for efficient risk operations in tandem with business growth plans; to escalate cases appropriately to ensure smooth operations on aspects such as proposal approvals, exception approvals, PDD, collections, etc.

Credit Managers

To execute risk assessment and underwriting operations in assigned region, in line with established practices and norms; to work with Sales and Operations team colleagues for efficient risk operations in tandem with business growth plans; to escalate cases appropriately to ensure smooth operations on aspects such as proposal approvals, exception approvals, PDD, collections, etc.

Internal

Frequency

Nature

Zonal Head – Risk

(Sr.) Credit Analysts

 ABFL Risk

      Sales, Operations

      Monitoring Team

Daily / Need Based

Daily / 

Ongoing

Need Based

    Daily / Need Based

Weekly / Need Based 

Periodic reporting on risk/ credit trends & performance; escalation/ exception approvals.

Inputs on structuring complex cases.

Ongoing coordination on proposal approvals and exception management; guidance, review of risk/ credit trends & performance

Inputs on Legal-Technical reports/ evaluations 

Liaising with peer colleagues for periodic updates, need based coordination on specific cases

Interacting with the monitoring team to understand the issues and concerns pertaining to the Region and taking corrective action

External

Frequency

Nature

Business Forums/ Networking Platforms

Customers 

Vendor Management

Quarterly

Daily / Need Based

Monthly / Need Based

Interfaces for staying up to date on risk/ credit trends and management mechanisms

Personal Discussions with the customers as part of the underwriting process

Meeting with the external vendors (Lawyers, valuation agencies, verification agencies) for market trends in the region

SIGN-OFF

Signature

Name

Job Holder

Job Holder’s Superior

Date

Job Analyst

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Name