Head of Credit (Corporate Office)

Dhanam Investment And Finance (P) LTD. · India

Designation: Head – Credit

Department: Credit

Reporting To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Location: Corporate Office

Industry: NBFC / Banking

Employment Type: Full-time

Experience

Preferred: 10 years in Credit / Underwriting / Credit Risk within NBFC, Banking or Financial Services.

Experience in an NBFC will be preferred .

The candidate should ideally have managed multi-product and multi-branch credit operations in roles such as:

• Head – Credit
• Zonal Credit Head
• Regional Credit Head
• National Credit Manager
• Senior Credit Risk Leader

Key Competencies

• Strong underwriting capability
• Financial and cash-flow analysis
• Secured and unsecured lending expertise
• Credit policy expertise
• Portfolio risk management
• Strong and independent decision-making
• Analytical and data-driven approach
• Ability to challenge Business teams constructively
• Strong leadership and people management
• High integrity and governance orientation
• Strong MIS and portfolio analytics
• Ability to balance growth with credit quality

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate should be a strong and independent Credit leader who can manage the complete Credit function from the Corporate Office while working closely with the CEO and Leadership Team.

The role should deliver:

Quality: Strong underwriting and consistent credit decisions.

Control: Clear policies, approval authority and deviation governance.

Speed: Efficient Credit TAT without compromising quality.

Portfolio Health: Low delinquency, controlled NPAs and early identification of risk.

Leadership: A strong, independent and scalable Credit organisation.

The Company is looking for a hands-on Credit Head who can support business growth while protecting portfolio quality through disciplined underwriting, strong analytics and independent credit decision-making.

Role Purpose

The Head – Credit will be responsible for the entire Credit function of the Company, including credit policy, underwriting, analysis, sanctioning, approval controls, portfolio monitoring and credit-risk governance across all lending products and branches.

Operating from the Corporate Office, the role will report directly to the CEO and work closely with the Leadership Team, Business, Risk, Operations, Collections, Legal, Compliance and Finance functions.

The objective is to support profitable business growth through strong underwriting, disciplined approvals, consistent policy application, fast turnaround times and high portfolio quality.

Key Responsibilities

1. Credit Strategy & Governance

• Develop and implement the Company’s overall Credit Strategy.
• Establish strong underwriting and approval standards.
• Ensure credit decisions balance growth, risk and profitability.
• Maintain independence of Credit from Sales and Business teams.
• Present key credit risks, trends and policy recommendations to the CEO and Leadership Team.
• Establish strong credit governance and escalation mechanisms.

2. Credit Policy Management

Own and periodically review credit policies across applicable products including:

• Loan Against Property
• Personal Loans
• Vehicle Loans
• Business Loans
• Gold Loans, where applicable
• Other secured and unsecured products

Define and review:

• Customer eligibility
• LTV
• FOIR / DBR
• Income assessment
• Banking norms
• Bureau parameters
• Property eligibility
• Credit score requirements
• Exposure limits
• Deviations
• Approval authorities
• Documentation standards

Ensure all policies are properly approved, version-controlled and communicated.

3. Credit Underwriting & Analysis

Ensure comprehensive assessment of proposals covering:

• Customer profile
• Repayment capacity
• Income and cash flow
• Banking behaviour
• Bureau history
• Existing indebtedness
• FOIR / leverage
• Business stability
• Financial statements
• GST / Income Tax data where applicable
• Property / collateral
• Legal and technical reports
• Fraud indicators
• Applicant and co-applicant strength

Ensure all analysis and rationale are properly captured in the Credit Appraisal Memorandum / CAM.

4. Credit Approvals

• Manage centralised credit approvals within delegated authority.
• Review and approve higher-value and complex proposals.
• Ensure sanctions comply with approved Credit Policy.
• Review policy deviations before approval.
• Escalate cases beyond delegated authority to the appropriate sanctioning authority.
• Maintain proper approval rationale and audit trail.
• Ensure maker-checker controls are followed.

5. Delegation of Authority

Maintain a Credit Delegation Matrix based on:

• Product
• Loan amount
• Risk grade
• Applicant profile
• Security type
• Policy deviations
• Geography
• Approver seniority

Ensure no individual approves proposals beyond assigned authority.

6. Deviation Management

• Establish a formal deviation framework.
• Categorise deviations based on risk and materiality.
• Monitor deviation frequency and concentration.
• Review recurring deviations.
• Escalate high-risk or excessive deviations.
• Recommend policy changes where recurring deviations indicate business or policy gaps.

7. Credit Risk & Portfolio Quality

Monitor:

• Delinquency
• SMA / NPA
• Roll rates
• Vintage performance
• First-payment default
• Product-wise defaults
• Branch-wise portfolio quality
• Credit-score bands
• LTV / FOIR bands
• Deviation performance
• Early delinquency

Identify emerging risks and modify underwriting standards where required.

8. Early Warning & Feedback Loop

• Analyse default trends and root causes.
• Work closely with Collections and Risk on stressed segments.
• Incorporate delinquency and recovery learnings into Credit Policy.
• Identify weak geographies, products, profiles or sourcing channels.
• Take corrective action before portfolio deterioration becomes material.

9. Fraud Prevention

Work with Risk, Audit and Operations to identify and prevent:

• Identity fraud
• Document fraud
• Income manipulation
• Banking manipulation
• Property fraud
• Multiple financing
• Employee / customer collusion
• Forged documentation
• Synthetic profiles

Ensure suspicious cases undergo enhanced verification or investigation.

10. Secured Lending & Collateral Oversight

For secured products:

• Review property eligibility and marketability.
• Ensure adherence to LTV limits.
• Review legal and technical findings.
• Monitor title and valuation risks.
• Monitor geographic and property-type concentration.
• Ensure key collateral conditions are completed prior to disbursement.

11. Credit Operations & TAT

Oversee credit process quality from application to sanction, including:

• Document completeness
• Verification
• Bureau analysis
• Banking analysis
• Financial assessment
• Legal and technical checks
• CAM preparation
• Approval
• Sanction conditions
• Pre-disbursement credit conditions

Define Credit TAT standards and reduce avoidable delays without weakening underwriting quality.

12. Leadership Team Collaboration

Work closely with the CEO and Leadership Team on:

• Business planning
• Portfolio strategy
• Risk appetite
• Product development
• Pricing
• Geographic expansion
• New customer segments
• Growth plans
• Collection trends
• Credit-cost management
• Technology and automation

Provide an independent Credit perspective on major business decisions.

13. Team Leadership

Lead the Credit organisation including:

• Regional Credit Managers
• Area Credit Managers
• Credit Managers
• Credit Officers
• Credit Analysts
• Central Credit Team

Responsibilities include:

• Manpower planning
• Recruitment
• Performance management
• Training
• Productivity
• Quality reviews
• Succession planning

14. Credit Training

Ensure continuous training on:

• Credit Policy
• Financial analysis
• Bureau interpretation
• Banking analysis
• Income assessment
• FOIR / LTV
• CAM preparation
• Fraud indicators
• Legal and technical reports
• Deviations
• Regulatory requirements

15. MIS & Analytics

Maintain dashboards covering:

• Applications received
• Approval / rejection rates
• Sanctions
• Disbursements
• Credit TAT
• Deviations
• Risk grades
• Credit scores
• LTV
• FOIR
• Delinquency
• NPA
• First-payment default
• Vintage performance
• Branch-wise quality
• Approver-wise performance

Use data and analytics to improve underwriting and policy.

16. Audit, Compliance & Regulatory Controls

• Ensure Credit operations comply with applicable RBI requirements and Company policies.
• Support Internal Audit, Compliance and regulatory reviews.
• Ensure timely closure of Credit-related observations.
• Maintain complete audit trails for approvals and deviations.
• Participate in policy reviews arising from regulatory changes.

17. Product & Policy Development

Work with the CEO, Leadership Team, Business, Risk and Product teams on:

• New lending products
• New customer segments
• Pricing frameworks
• Risk-based pricing
• Credit programmes
• Surrogate income programmes
• New geographies
• Digital underwriting
• Automated decisioning

Ensure adequate credit-risk assessment before rollout.

Key Performance Indicators

• Portfolio quality
• Delinquency / NPA levels
• First-payment default
• Credit TAT
• Approval quality
• Deviation levels
• Vintage performance
• Credit losses
• Policy adherence
• Audit compliance
• Fraud incidence
• Credit-team productivity
• Quality of underwriting and CAM
• Timely policy reviews