From human touch to digital touch

In an era of rising risk, what is interesting is the transformation of personal perspectives of risk professionals. Two Chief Risk Officers, Rakesh Bansal from Hero Housing Finance and Satyanandan Atyam from Tata AIG General Insurance, share their personal perspectives:

- Manoj

Manoj Agrawal: How were you initially attracted to the profession of risk management? What do you find most appealing about being a risk professional?

Rakesh: During the initial days of the NBFC industry, there was no separate risk function - we were responsible for doing credit appraisals and collection apart from sourcing the business. NBFCs faced tough times during mid-90s as this model lacked the desired expertise and controls. In the late 90s, verticalization of business, credit, risk and collection started happening for better control and governance. During this time I received feedback from my bosses that I am better suited for credit risk function as I displayed natural flair. I also felt more comfortable in understanding various SME businesses and started focussing on credit risk function.

Over a period of time, it became evident that banks and NBFCs/HFCs get valued based on the quality of assets and the credit risk team responsible for the same. In a competitive environment, credit risk function is like wine - the older it is, the better valuation you get.

In the current scenario, the smartest people in the company are trying to impress you with new product ideas - this keeps you in learning mode and helps you sharpen your skills, and this keeps me excited about the credit risk function.

Satyanandan: I had stumbled upon the risk management profession by accident - it was never planned. I had been into roles of system controls auditor, advisory consultant, chief information security officer, data privacy officer, presales manager and risk consultant in industry as well as in consulting organization. As businesses grow, they stumble upon decision making in an VUCA environment. Hence the risk manager must orchestrate and bring together strategic views of the enterprise-wide risks which assist in expanding stakeholders’ perspectives and deepening their insights.