Chief Risk Officer — Corporate Bank

The mandate

A multinational-owned corporate bank needs to establish enterprise risk ownership with consistent early-warning indicators across relationship, credit and operations; clear committee governance of exceptions; and board assurance that demonstrates first-line behaviour change. The next CRO must make risk evidence decision ready.

The Chief Risk Officer will oversee approximately ₹74,800 crore in loans and deposits and lead about 600 employees and material partners. The remit covers credit, market, liquidity, operational, technology, third-party and enterprise risk, appetite, aggregation, model oversight and board assurance. Compliance and audit remain independent peers.

Early warning should combine client financials, utilisation, transaction behaviour, covenant, collateral, sector and relationship evidence. The CRO will establish ownership, thresholds and action so indicators alter limits, pricing, classification or recovery before loss becomes unavoidable.

Risk appetite needs practical consequences. Exceptions require rationale, owner, expiry and compensating action. Repeated acceptance should trigger a portfolio or process decision rather than become an informal business model.

Board assurance must test control effectiveness. Closure evidence should show that first-line ownership and data continue after programme supervision ends. Independent review will focus on assumptions capable of changing exposure.

Corporate concentrations and connected counterparties need scenarios that combine credit, liquidity, market and operational effects. Supplier or payment disruption can accelerate a client event. The CRO will present alternatives, not only downside.

Credit governance must connect origination and portfolio management. Sector appetite, underwriting structures, collateral, covenant design and delegated authority should reflect how risk will be monitored after drawdown. The CRO will test whether relationship incentives and annual-review capacity support the approved model. Watchlist and classification forums need common evidence, timely dissent and explicit actions.

Model and data governance are part of early warning. Inputs, overrides, performance and change must be traceable, with independent validation focused on decisions. Model output cannot displace relationship and operational evidence, nor can qualitative judgement remain undocumented. Data owners require authority and service expectations when gaps delay action.

The function should create specialist depth and business proximity without compromising independence. Succession, rotation and capability plans will cover credit, portfolio, operational and technology risk.

Recovery strategy will be integrated before default. Restructuring, additional support, covenant action, collateral enforcement and specialised recovery should use clear decision rights and safeguards. The CRO will compare outcomes, timing and capacity rather than allow repeated short extensions to conceal deterioration. Recovery lessons will feed underwriting and portfolio appetite, including which protections proved usable under stress.

Regulator-ready evidence means decisions can be reconstructed from source data through challenge, approval and follow-through. Committee papers should record dissent and alternatives, not only consensus. The CRO will commission thematic review where exposures share a cause and remove duplicated assurance that consumes specialists without changing risk. Board reporting will distinguish known, estimated and genuinely uncertain exposure.

Why this seat is open

This planned replacement includes a structured incumbent handover over four to six months while asset-quality work continues.

What you will own

• Reset risk appetite, ownership, exception and escalation.
• Steward risk across ₹74,800 crore in loans and deposits.
• Build integrated early warning and portfolio action.
• Aggregate concentration and connected corporate exposures.
• Govern control remediation and sustainable closure evidence.
• Challenge pricing, limits, classification and recovery decisions.
• Lead 600 employees and partners with strong risk succession.
• Give the board regulator-ready evidence and explicit alternatives.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, review asset quality, early-warning data, exceptions, concentrations and remediation. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to risk ownership, including clients represented through evidence, relationship leaders, credit, operations and supervisors. Stabilise severe exposure, assess leaders and agree risk-committee gates.

Months four to nine should reset appetite, embed common early warning and close or time-limit recurring exceptions. Fill leadership gaps and exercise a connected stress scenario. The first value should appear in earlier client action, avoided loss, faster issue closure or clearer accepted risk.

By year end, early-warning quality, control effectiveness and regulator-ready evidence should be repeatable. The first-year case should finish within 10% of baseline, with forecasts reconciling risk, cash, customer and workforce assumptions for three consecutive quarters. Priority control issues need independently verified closure; no severe escalation may remain unresolved beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Timeliness and predictive quality of early-warning indicators.
• Limits, pricing, classification or recovery changed before deterioration.
• Frequency, age and recurrence of appetite exceptions.
• Control effectiveness and remediation closure outside programme oversight.
• Retention above 90% for critical risk talent and ready-now cover for 70% of direct reports.
• Quantified improvement in first-line ownership with clean data.

The person

You are a CRO, Corporate Credit Risk Head or Enterprise Risk Executive with 22–28 years in regulated banking. You have owned asset quality, appetite and board assurance through a stressed credit cycle.

Your accountable book, portfolio, budget or P&L has been at least ₹43,400 crore, and you have led 425 or more people; this remit includes approximately 600. You can evidence an early-warning and ownership reset sustained over two reporting periods.

You preserve independent challenge, understand corporate relationship economics and can state uncertainty and alternatives plainly to supervisors and the board.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. This permanent Hyderabad position is onsite and allows a notice period of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, portfolio and succession remain confidential until fit is established. Composite facts prevent identification.