Deputy Vice President - Merchant & Customer Credit Risk

Deputy Vice President (DVP) - Merchant & Customer Credit RiskLocation: Pune

Reporting To: Chief Risk Officer (CRO)

Function: Risk Management

Role Purpose:

The DVP - Merchant & Customer Credit Risk will be responsible for managing the end-to-end risk framework across merchant partnerships and customer lending programs. The role will oversee merchant onboarding, merchant monitoring, customer acquisition risk, customer underwriting strategies, portfolio monitoring, fraud risk controls, and risk governance.

The incumbent will ensure that merchant partners onboarded onto the platform adhere to predefined risk standards while driving sustainable and profitable growth of customer lending portfolios originated through merchant channels.

The role requires balancing growth, portfolio quality, fraud prevention, customer experience, and regulatory compliance across merchant-led lending ecosystems.

Key Responsibilities:1. Merchant Onboarding & Due Diligence:

• Establish merchant onboarding policies and eligibility criteria.

• Conduct risk assessment of merchant partners covering:

• Business model

• Ownership structure

• Regulatory compliance

• Reputation risk

• Fraud risk

• Operational capability

• Define approval and escalation frameworks for merchant onboarding.

• Develop merchant segmentation and risk-rating methodologies.

• Recommend onboarding, conditional approval, suspension, or rejection decisions.

• Support expansion into new merchant categories and business segments.

2. Merchant Monitoring & Governance:

• Develop a comprehensive merchant monitoring framework.

• Establish periodic review mechanisms covering:

• Business continuity

• Customer complaint trends

• Fraud incidence

• Portfolio performance by merchant

• Merchant concentration

• Regulatory and conduct risks

• Create merchant watchlists and enhanced monitoring programs.

• Define merchant suspension, remediation, and exit criteria.

• Monitor merchant-wise loss rates, early delinquency indicators, and fraud trends.

• Ensure adherence to merchant agreements, operational processes, and risk controls.

3. Customer Acquisition & Onboarding Risk:

• Develop risk-based customer onboarding strategies for merchant-sourced customers.

• Define eligibility rules and pre-screening criteria.

• Build onboarding controls leveraging:

• Bureau data

• Alternate data

• Device intelligence

• Bank statement analytics

• Digital footprint signals

• Collaborate with Fraud and Product teams to strengthen acquisition quality.

• Drive straight-through processing while maintaining robust risk controls.

4. Customer Credit Underwriting:

• Design and implement underwriting policies for customers originated through merchant channels.

• Develop and optimize scorecards, risk models, and decision strategies.

• Define approval cut-offs, pricing strategies, exposure limits, and exception management frameworks.

• Continuously refine underwriting strategies based on portfolio performance and market trends.

• Balance business growth objectives with risk-adjusted returns.

5. Portfolio Risk Monitoring:

• Monitor performance of customers originated through merchant ecosystems.

• Track key risk indicators including:

• Delinquencies

• Roll rates

• Bounce rates

• Credit losses

• Vintage performance

• Merchant-wise portfolio performance

• Geographic and segment concentration

• Develop Early Warning Systems (EWS) for emerging risks.

• Recommend policy changes and corrective actions based on portfolio trends.

• Present portfolio performance reviews to senior management and risk committees.

6. Fraud Risk & Controls:

• Partner with Fraud Risk teams to strengthen onboarding and transaction controls.

• Monitor and mitigate:

• Identity fraud

• Synthetic identities

• First-party fraud

• Merchant-customer collusion

• Mule accounts

• Application fraud

• Implement preventive, detective, and monitoring controls.

• Develop fraud escalation and governance frameworks.

7. Data Analytics & Risk Strategy:

• Drive risk analytics across customer acquisition and portfolio management.

• Develop merchant-level and customer-level performance dashboards.

• Evaluate new data sources and decision frameworks.

• Monitor scorecard and model performance.

• Lead champion-challenger testing and strategy optimization initiatives.

8. Risk Governance & Regulatory Compliance:

• Ensure compliance with RBI regulations, Digital Lending Guidelines, KYC/AML norms, and internal policies.

• Support audits, regulatory inspections, and risk reviews.

• Maintain governance around policy deviations and approvals.

• Present risk insights and portfolio performance to Executive Management, Risk Committees, and the Board.

Education:Mandatory:

• Chartered Accountant (CA) OR

• MBA (Finance) from a reputed institute

Preferred:

• FRM, CFA or Risk Management certifications

Experience:Essential:

• 12 - 16 years of experience in Consumer Lending Risk, Digital Lending Risk, Fintech Risk, Merchant Program Risk, or Retail Credit Risk.

• Minimum 5 years in a leadership role managing customer underwriting and portfolio risk.

• Strong experience in merchant-led lending ecosystems, embedded finance, POS financing, BNPL, consumer durable financing, healthcare financing, education financing, or digital lending.

• Experience in building risk frameworks from onboarding to portfolio management.

Leadership Competencies:

• Strategic risk management

• Strong commercial acumen

• Data-driven decision making

• Stakeholder management

• Regulatory orientation

• Team leadership and talent development

• Program and partnership risk management

• Excellent communication and Board-level presentation skills