Critical Edge in AI-Driven Lending Decisions

Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I bring over 18 years of experience across the BFSI industry, spanning retail banking, SME lending, credit underwriting, business development, portfolio management, and branch leadership. My career has centered on the end-to-end credit and customer lifecycle — from acquisition and onboarding via underwriting, structuring, sanctioning, disbursement, monitoring, and recovery — giving me a grounded, outcomes-oriented view of how credit decisions play out in real portfolios.

My core focus has been MSME and working-capital financing. In my experience, MSMEs rarely struggle from a lack of access to credit; the real challenge is a mismatch between credit structure and business cash-flow cycles. Understanding inventory cycles, receivables, payables, seasonality, and promoter behavior is often more decisive than financial statement analysis alone — and that judgment comes from sustained credit underwriting and on-ground business engagement. 

I've also watched the BFSI ecosystem shift from relationship-led banking to a data-driven, digitally enabled model, where banking transactions, GST data, bureau insights, and platform-based cash flows increasingly inform MSME lending decisions. My view is that data should sharpen credit judgment, not substitute for it. This is …