Credit Manager - Retail

Role Summary

This position is responsible for carrying out credit and risk operations for assigned basic transactions, following the company’s defined frameworks and operating procedures. The role supports healthy portfolio quality and works closely with Sales, Operations, and Risk colleagues to keep underwriting and control processes effective.

Organization Context

The company is part of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group. It operates as a housing finance company registered with the National Housing Bank under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987. Its offerings cover a broad set of housing finance products, including home loans, home improvement loans, home construction loans, balance transfer and top-up loans, loans against property, and construction finance. The business obtained its license on 9 July 2014 and is pursuing strong growth.

Business Context

The risk function is central to underwriting, portfolio health, and long-term sustainability. It works alongside sales/sourcing teams in a mirrored structure, with each risk role aligned to corresponding sales roles across the organization. In addition to checking controls and process adherence, the team also helps evaluate product and market growth ideas to support expansion in a controlled manner.

What the Role Involves

The Credit Manager is expected to execute risk and credit activities within the approved guidelines and norms, while protecting the organization from local business risks through process checks and control measures. The role requires strong judgment in creditworthiness and risk evaluation. It is also a field-facing underwriting position, involving customer meetings and property visits, so working knowledge of legal and valuation concepts is important.

Key Challenges

The housing finance business carries construction-related risk, especially for projects that are still under development and may not complete as planned. The role must account for this while designing and applying controls and while reviewing business proposals.

The company is in a rapid growth stage, so the risk team must balance risk discipline with business expansion without increasing sub-prime exposure or weakening the overall health of the portfolio.

Housing finance also varies significantly by state, with different local practices and interpretations of regulatory guidelines. Team members therefore need to stay current on regional norms and work within compliance requirements while still supporting business goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Process assigned basic credit and risk cases in line with the approved underwriting framework and portfolio quality standards.
• Take guidance from senior team members and use technical inputs, including state-specific and property-specific factors, to assess cases accurately.
• Coordinate with ABFL risk colleagues whenever clarification is needed on legal or technical evaluation points.
• Work efficiently so that risk operations support business throughput while still meeting control and risk objectives.
• Partner with Credit Processing Analysts to ensure files are properly logged before credit work begins.
• Follow structured coordination with Sales and Operations teams to support decision-making and problem-solving, and escalate matters to the RCM when necessary.
• Maintain compliance with risk policies and norms, and prepare periodic as well as case-specific MIS, reports, and escalation documents.
• Follow maker-checker controls for local risk operations, including exception approvals, collateral valuation, PDD completion, cheque bounce collection, and related activities.
• Work closely with Collections and Operations teams to track delinquency cases and improve collections performance.
• Escalate complex, special, or high-risk recovery and delinquency/NPA prevention cases to the RCM as needed.
• Continue building technical capability in legal documents, property-related norms, and underwriting practices to strengthen risk assessment quality.
• Maintain strong internal relationships to ensure smooth handling of exception, escalation, and complex cases.

Qualifications and Experience

Applicants should have a CA or MBA in Finance and 0 to 3 years of experience in a bank, NBFC, or HFC.

Skills Needed

• Credit underwriting
• Risk assessment
• Portfolio quality management
• Financial analysis
• Legal and technical document review
• Property valuation understanding
• Stakeholder coordination
• Process adherence
• Analytical thinking
• Reporting and MIS preparation
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Execution orientation

Additional Notes

The role requires hands-on involvement with customers and property visits as part of the underwriting process. It also demands awareness of local business practices and regulatory interpretations in the relevant state or location.

Growth and Performance Focus

Success in this role depends on sound judgment, timely execution, careful control handling, and the ability to support business growth without compromising risk standards or portfolio health.