Mohit Mairal: A Well-Versed CRO Identifying The Right Risks And Uncertainties In Risk Management
Mohit Mairal
Chief Risk Officer
Engaging with a team of CEO Insights for an exclusive interaction, Mr Mohit Mairal shares the story of his journey as the Chief Risk Officer of an eminent financial institution.
"As a CRO it is always better to be involved in all the functions either directly or indirectly and that is only possible if you enjoy some cordial relationships with other CXO's and functional heads"
Highlight upon your educational and professional background. Also, tell us about your unique skill sets and strengths that differentiate you from your peers in the industry.
I Graduated in Mathematics and I have completed my MBA in finance. I have been in Retail Lending Business for more than 2 decades with extensive experience in managing Credit and Risk Management, formulating strategies, implementing systems and procedures to achieve maximum efficiency.
Having 20+ years of extensive experience in the credit and risk management, tell us about your journey as Chief Risk Officer and what are the challenges you encountered during your professional journey?
I started my career in frontline sales and later shifted to Credit and Risk. My professional journey has been full of challenges with its own ups and downs but it was fun and I learned a lot. Being a sales person, I
had a better understanding of the ground realities and hence was able to assess the risk in a more efficient manner since most of the loop holes were known to me and ploughing them was easier. In the initial period post transition from sales to credit and risk it was a cultural shock and I had a dilemma whether the decision was correct or not but later I groomed myself and started selling Credit/ Risk to the sales team.
IndoStar Capital Finance had been a typically corporate lending entity however for over a past couple years the focused has changed completely to retail and since my entire career has been in retail domain only, it was easy to lead the team and take it to the next level.
Risk management is about managing uncertainties that may impact our ability to achieve our goals. Can you describe how you identify, assess, and determine how to manage those uncertainties?
Risk Management can become very complex if not handled in a structured way and needs to be planned well. The uncertainties can arrive in any shape or form and may have a long lasting impact, like the current pandemic which no one had anticipated that has made a very long lasting impact. However, the structured approach would be to note down all the risks which can be anticipated by the respective functions and go through all the processes which are required to achieve the desired results. Identification of the concerns pertaining to related matters like IT, people, SOP's, vendors etc is equally important. Once these uncertainties are identified they need to be classified into high, medium and low risk so that the impact can be determined and accordingly the impact analysis can be done.
As CRO of IndoStar Capital Finance, how do you integrate the consideration and management of risk in the setting of strategy, achievement of goals and objectives, optimization of performance and management of major projects?
Once the uncertainties are identified aroundthe project it becomes comparatively easy to address those uncertainties and achieve the desired goal. Since the risk has been
IndoStar Capital Finance had been a typically corporate lending entity however for over a past couple years the focused has changed completely to retail and since my entire career has been in retail domain only, it was easy to lead the team and take it to the next level.
The CRO should be involved in all the functions whether directly or indirectly and when you are involved in all the functions then it becomes a little easy to ensure that the compliance is met effectively and properly
Risk management is about managing uncertainties that may impact our ability to achieve our goals. Can you describe how you identify, assess, and determine how to manage those uncertainties?
Risk Management can become very complex if not handled in a structured way and needs to be planned well. The uncertainties can arrive in any shape or form and may have a long lasting impact, like the current pandemic which no one had anticipated that has made a very long lasting impact. However, the structured approach would be to note down all the risks which can be anticipated by the respective functions and go through all the processes which are required to achieve the desired results. Identification of the concerns pertaining to related matters like IT, people, SOP's, vendors etc is equally important. Once these uncertainties are identified they need to be classified into high, medium and low risk so that the impact can be determined and accordingly the impact analysis can be done.
As CRO of IndoStar Capital Finance, how do you integrate the consideration and management of risk in the setting of strategy, achievement of goals and objectives, optimization of performance and management of major projects?
Once the uncertainties are identified aroundthe project it becomes comparatively easy to address those uncertainties and achieve the desired goal. Since the risk has been
identified it is always better to assign a team member from the same project as the risk owner along with a team member from the risk team so that the impact gets minimal and there is a complete buy in from all the stake holders. Also, getting cooperation from all the stake holders becomes very easy. Since one of the risk owners is from Risk team, the monitoring is also done effectively and closely.
What are the methods/strategies that you laid have transformed IndoStar Capital Finance entire work culture and client relationships?
As a CRO it is always better to be involved in all the functions either directly or indirectly and that is only possible if you enjoy some cordial relationships with other CXO's and functional heads. In fact, at times I have gone ahead and helped lot of other functions to achieve some of the strategic goals in which Risk had no role to play but keeping in mind the larger interest of the company. This has created a certain kind of faith in the system. However, there is a flip side also to it and at times even if there is no role to be played by the risk team, the CRO is expected to take ownership and that may become a little hindrance for you. At such times, things need to be handled very diplomatically.
What are the key drivers that you deploy to ensure that the company’s regulatory compliances are used appropriately to meet its short/long term needs? How do you manage risk and uncertainty in general? Also, are you using a recognized risk standard or framework?
The CRO should be involved in all the functions whether directly or indirectly and when you are involved in all the functions then it becomes a little easy to ensure that the compliance is met effectively and properly. However, it is not that easy and the relationship has to be built over a period of time and the trust needs to be earned from other departments post which only all this is possible. You need to be a team player to achieve all this.
We are still at a very nascent stage on the Risk parameters and in the world of financial institutions, which is a very dynamic world, at any point of time you will be at a nascent stage only since it is constantly changing and ever evolving. Our endeavor is to adapt the best in quality framework to handle the risk parameters. In a race to do that we are constantly evolving and don't want ourselves to get stagnant by adopting any particular method,standards or framework.
Mohit Mairal, CRO, IndoStar Capital Finance
IndoStar is a non banking finance company “NBFC” registered with the Reserve Bank of India as a systemically important non-deposit taking company.
What are the methods/strategies that you laid have transformed IndoStar Capital Finance entire work culture and client relationships?
As a CRO it is always better to be involved in all the functions either directly or indirectly and that is only possible if you enjoy some cordial relationships with other CXO's and functional heads. In fact, at times I have gone ahead and helped lot of other functions to achieve some of the strategic goals in which Risk had no role to play but keeping in mind the larger interest of the company. This has created a certain kind of faith in the system. However, there is a flip side also to it and at times even if there is no role to be played by the risk team, the CRO is expected to take ownership and that may become a little hindrance for you. At such times, things need to be handled very diplomatically.
What are the key drivers that you deploy to ensure that the company’s regulatory compliances are used appropriately to meet its short/long term needs? How do you manage risk and uncertainty in general? Also, are you using a recognized risk standard or framework?
The CRO should be involved in all the functions whether directly or indirectly and when you are involved in all the functions then it becomes a little easy to ensure that the compliance is met effectively and properly. However, it is not that easy and the relationship has to be built over a period of time and the trust needs to be earned from other departments post which only all this is possible. You need to be a team player to achieve all this.
We are still at a very nascent stage on the Risk parameters and in the world of financial institutions, which is a very dynamic world, at any point of time you will be at a nascent stage only since it is constantly changing and ever evolving. Our endeavor is to adapt the best in quality framework to handle the risk parameters. In a race to do that we are constantly evolving and don't want ourselves to get stagnant by adopting any particular method,standards or framework.
Mohit Mairal, CRO, IndoStar Capital Finance
IndoStar is a non banking finance company “NBFC” registered with the Reserve Bank of India as a systemically important non-deposit taking company.