Organization Context:
Aditya Birla Capital Limited. ABCL is registered with RBI as a Systematically Important Non-Deposit accepting Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC). ABCL is one of the top private diversified NBFCs in India. As of 31-Mar’25, ABCL has a pan-India presence with 450 branches and a lending book of Rs. 1.2 Lack Crores.
ABCL offers end-to-end lending solutions to a diverse set of customers - Retail, HNI, MSMEs, and Mid & Large Corporates through secured as well as unsecured loan products. The diverse range of lending products includes Retail Small Ticket Secured and Unsecured Loans, Unsecured Personal Loans, Unsecured Business Loans, Health & Education Loans, Digital B2B2C and B2B2B Small Ticket Loans, Small Business Secured Loans, Loans Against Property (LAP), Lease Rental Discounting (LRD), Construction Finance (to Real Estate Developers), SME Loans, Capital Markets Loans (Loan Against Shares), Supply Chain Finance, Mid and Large Corporate Loans, and Infrastructure Finance loans. ABCL also has a Wealth Management division.
ABCL is rated “AAA” by India Ratings, ICRA and CARE (reaffirmed in 2020). ABCL secured the ABG Business Excellence Award in 2017 (Silver), and 2015 (Bronze), and multiple other Awards on forums like CII.
Business Context:
The Credit Function at ABFL plays a pivotal role in enabling responsible retail lending across a vast and diverse geographical footprint. With over 420 branches covering 12,500+ pincodes, the team supports exponential customer growth driven by both direct channels and lending service partnerships. This expansion demands robust credit evaluation and risk management capabilities.To meet the scale and speed of operations, the department has embraced advanced technology, including new APIs, STPs, Go-No-Go frameworks, and BREs under the Lentra Revamp Project, enabling faster turnaround and data-driven decisions. Analytics and data science are deeply embedded in underwriting, leveraging predictive models based on personal, financial, demographic, and bureau data.
The Credit team also supports digital sourcing, especially in Supply Chain Finance, and is aligned with ABFL’s strategy to penetrate Tier 3 to Tier 5 cities, ensuring financial inclusion. With new growth areas like Education Loans and Two-Wheeler Financing, the function is central to ABFL’s mission of expanding its retail loan bouquet across India’s urban and emerging markets.
As part of a top-tier NBFC with AAA credit ratings and ?1.30 lakh crore AUM, the Credit Function must navigate regulatory changes, manage credit costs, and maintain portfolio quality while supporting the company’s role in India’s journey toward a USD 5 trillion economy. The role demands collaboration across Sales, Risk, and Operations to ensure efficient credit delivery and sound portfolio management
Job Context
The Credit function for Secured Loans in an NBFC setup plays a critical role in enabling access to medium and long-term financing for small businesses and individuals through products like Small Ticket Secured Lending (STSL) and Micro LAP (MLAP). These loans are backed by collateral and require thorough credit evaluation to ensure portfolio hygiene and risk control. The function is responsible for assessing creditworthiness using both quantitative and qualitative parameters such as business size, earnings, liquidity, and management quality.
In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, the credit team must institutionalize robust approval processes, engage effectively with sales teams for complete documentation, and ensure seamless adoption of credit frameworks. Technology integration is key to improving turnaround times (TAT), enabling predictive risk assessment, and building a high-quality portfolio. The function also monitors key performance indicators and collaborates with stakeholders to ensure timely regularization of margin shortfalls and safety of financed amounts. Continuous process improvement initiatives are essential to enhance Return on Assets (ROA), manage costs, and maintain compliance with regulatory standards and fraud risk controls.
Key Challenges:
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Technical - The market is highly competitive with the availability of solutions that provide data at a click of a second. We need to continuously explore bring technology up to the curve as the manual leg in underwriting on the technology front is quite exhaustive.
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Talent Retention - Retaining key talent within the team can be difficult, especially if employees are seeking more. Compensation Packages from Rival companies
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Portfolio management in dynamic environment - Portfolio management in continuously changing external environment and competition strategy can be very difficult to manage
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FTR logins–
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To ensure availability of data and information for exhaustive credit appraisals as each of the proposals has their respective structuring complexities as per the customer, product & regulatory requirements
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Ensuring faster TATs for approval process
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To ensure that credit and customer risk are mitigated while pending documentation is monitored and regularized
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Proactive monitoring and identification of risks in a dynamic and fast paced business context and regularization of margin shortfalls.
