Company: Confidential listed financial-technology and securities platform
Board base: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Sector: Retail broking, investment distribution and digital wealth
Appointment: Independent Director, Non-Executive
Intended committees: Risk Management Committee Chair; member, Audit and Technology Committees
Time commitment: 32–40 days annually, including incident simulations and regulated-operations reviews
Application deadline: 15 September 2026
Expected appointment: October 2026
Company context
The platform serves millions of retail investors through mobile and web trading, demat access, mutual-fund and fixed-income distribution, margin products, APIs and market information. Revenue is sensitive to market activity, derivative participation, interest income, partner economics and customer acquisition. Technology availability and correct client-asset treatment are central to its licence to operate.
Market hint: A mobile-first discount-broking heritage, growing wealth products, developer APIs and a large first-time-investor base may suggest several Indian platforms. Customer count, founders, pricing and exchange share are omitted.
Board mandate
The appointee will govern the tension between product velocity and market integrity. The director must be able to trace client money, securities, margin, orders, risk limits and complaints through the complete operating chain and challenge growth that depends on customer misunderstanding or unstable systems.
Strategic priorities
- Establish daily Board assurance over segregation, settlement, pledge/re-pledge, collateral valuation, margin collection, shortfall, pay-in/pay-out and aged reconciliation.
- Govern order-management, risk-management and exchange connectivity through capacity, latency, sequence integrity, kill switches, failover, release control and client remediation.
- Review derivative journeys, leverage communication, nudges, alerts and eligibility so revenue does not depend on inexperienced customers taking risks they do not understand.
- Set controls for APIs, algorithmic access, third-party trading tools, social-media tipsters and partner applications that can create conduct or systemic exposure.
- Govern fraud, account takeover, mule accounts, unauthorised trades, device change, beneficiary change and insider access through prevention and rapid customer protection.
- Create model governance for surveillance, fraud, suitability, customer segmentation, recommendations and AI service tools, including drift, bias, explainability and human escalation.
- Review cross-selling of mutual funds, bonds, loans, insurance or advisory services for licensing perimeter, suitability, commissions, conflicts and data consent.
- Stress-test liquidity and capital against market gaps, settlement obligations, margin spikes, partner failure, cyber incidents and simultaneous customer withdrawals.
- Align product, dealer, support and executive incentives with customer outcomes, compliant growth, resilience and complaint closure.
- Protect control-function independence and direct access to the Board during an incident or regulatory examination.
Decisions expected at Board level
- Whether a high-growth derivative feature should be restricted after evidence of customer harm.
- Whether trading should be suspended during partial system degradation rather than continue with unequal access.
- Whether compensation and restitution are required after a technology or order-routing failure.
- Whether an adjacent wealth product creates an advisory conflict with the broking platform.
- Whether customer and transaction growth have exceeded capital, surveillance or service capacity.
Candidate profile
Essential: Former securities-market regulator, exchange/clearing executive, broker CEO/CRO/COO, bank or market-risk leader, fintech Board director or technology-resilience executive; direct responsibility for client assets, market conduct, operational resilience or regulated incidents.
Preferred: retail derivatives, clearing and settlement, cyber/fraud, model risk, investor protection, technology committee or regulated Audit Committee experience.
Eligibility and conflicts
Active IICA Databank inclusion and test/exemption verification are mandatory, together with all statutory and securities-market fit-and-proper requirements. Candidates must disclose broker, exchange, clearing, depository, bank, fund, issuer, trading-technology, tipster, audit and personal securities interests.
First-year outcomes
- Independent daily assurance over client assets and settlement obligations.
- Tested severe-market and technology-recovery playbooks.
- Product gates incorporating customer understanding and harm indicators.
- Board-owned model, API and third-party trading governance.
- Incident decisions and customer remediation supported by reliable evidence.