Area Credit Manager-Retail-Delhi

Role overview

This position is responsible for leading retail credit underwriting activities for the Delhi region. The role ensures that credit proposals are assessed accurately and quickly, with appropriate risk controls, documentation discipline, and compliance with legal and policy requirements. It also involves deciding cases within delegated powers and escalating higher-value or more complex matters to the appropriate approval forum.

The role includes managing and mentoring a multi-location team, coordinating closely with sales and credit analysts, and maintaining healthy turnaround times while protecting portfolio quality.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the review and evaluation of regional credit proposals to ensure sound underwriting decisions.
• Work closely with local credit analysts and sales teams to speed up credit processing and improve turnaround time.
• Identify credit risks, recommend mitigants, and ensure adherence to legal, regulatory, and internal documentation standards.
• Monitor existing credit exposures to confirm that accounts remain bankable throughout the credit lifecycle.
• Check proposal documentation thoroughly from pre-sanction through post-disbursement stages and ensure customer credit quality is tracked.
• Approve cases within delegated authority and refer other proposals to the relevant NRM, Credit Committee, or higher approval level.
• Guide, motivate, and supervise a team distributed across multiple locations and business segments.

Business context and challenges

The lending business operates in a highly competitive and price-sensitive market, where it must compete with banks and other financial institutions. The organisation has a strong presence in secured lending and has also expanded into unsecured business products for businesses and individuals.

The role must support smooth proposal movement across branches in the region, manage complex credit evaluation requirements, maintain strict turnaround times, and coordinate effectively across functions. It also requires strong attention to portfolio risk, monitoring of pending documents and sticky accounts, and continuous awareness of economic, sectoral, and industry trends.

Dimensions and operating measures

Relevant operating measures include loan approval limits, SOP/process adherence, and NPA percentage. The source does not provide specific manpower numbers, budgets, or volume figures.

Key result areas

• Manage underwriting by evaluating customer strength, business stability, financials, income tax returns, cash flows, repayment history, bank balance trends, and internal credit parameters.
• Carry out direct customer interaction and independent due diligence to gather complete credit information.
• Approve or recommend proposals at regional and higher levels based on risk assessment and authority limits.
• Prepare and submit credit appraisal notes in time, clearly highlighting key borrower risks for prudent decisions.
• Ensure sanction letters are issued correctly, deviations are recorded accurately, and revenue leakage is avoided.
• Coordinate document execution with relationship managers and hand over complete documentation to operations for disbursement.
• Conduct external research and market reference checks to support proposal evaluation.
• Maintain strong documentation practices and monitor proposal files and turnaround times.
• Prepare MIS, trend reports, variance analysis, and default/portfolio dashboards for regional risk monitoring.
• Ensure teams follow SOPs, capture data correctly in systems, monitor covenants and sanction conditions, support recoveries, and manage escalations after disbursement.
• Drive process improvement in credit approvals and customer handling in line with changing business needs.
• Develop and support credit analysts through training, coaching, and performance oversight.

Additional role information

The role requires the ability to analyse complex proposals, maintain strong decision quality, work with speed in a competitive environment, and ensure both customer and credit risk are controlled. Regular updates on market, industry, and economic developments are expected.

Qualifications and experience

The preferred background is Chartered Accountant or MBA with 4 to 7 years of experience in credit and risk functions within banks or NBFCs.

Core skills

Strong analytical thinking, credit evaluation, attention to detail, sound judgement, initiative, target focus, market awareness, and team leadership are essential for success in this position.

Team leadership and process ownership

The role includes building capability within the regional credit team, ensuring quality and turnaround standards are met, and supporting sales and process teams with training on products, processes, legal points, and technical aspects.