India Inc is doubling down on senior hires in compliance, risk & legal to stay on top of rulebooks

Companies across the banking, financial services and insurance, and fintech sectors are ramping up their risk and compliance functions with senior-level hiring to guide them through a dynamic regulatory environment.

Rica Bhattacharyya Maulik Vyas
  • Updated On Dec 12, 2022 at 07:58 AM IST
Read by: 100 Industry Professionals
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Demand for senior professionals in compliance, risk, finance and legal has witnessed a massive surge in the past one year, with frequent tightening of rules leading to the need for higher levels of scrutiny and compliance.

Companies across the banking, financial services and insurance, and fintech sectors are ramping up their risk and compliance functions with senior-level hiring to guide them through a dynamic regulatory environment.

There were around 200 mid- to senior-level moves in the past one year in functions such as finance, audit, compliance and legal. About 160 of these were in roles like finance chief, investor relations head, legal head, audit head and compliance head, according to data put together exclusively for ET by executive search firm Native.

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As many as 34 chief financial officers were hired in the last 12 months by banks, NBFCs, fintech firms and private equity funds, showed the data. Top CFO moves included Deepa Dev who joined Deutsche Bank from Credit Suisse, Rashmi Mohanty who moved to SBI Cards from Clix Capital and Kanishka Chaudhary, formerly of Maersk Trade Finance, who joined Suryoday Small Finance Bank.

Prominent moves as the head of legal and compliance included Agnipushp Singh, who joined Nomura from PNB Metlife, and Mohit Kapoor of IIFL Finance, who was previously with RBL Bank.

In the fintech sector, Aravind Venugopal joined Acko as its first general counsel from Khaitan & Co, Nistha Soonee moved to Slice as its deputy general counsel from Trilegal and Shiva Kumar Tadikonda, who left DBS Bank to take up the role of chief compliance officer at CoinSwitch Kuber.

There is also a surge in demand for former officials of the Reserve Bank of India for compliance roles, with several fintech firms seeking expertise of these veterans who have a first-hand understanding of the nitty-gritties of the regulatory environment. Some recent hires include Arjun Dutta, who joined HDB Fin Services as compliance head, and Rakesh Kumar Rajput of HDFC Bank.

"The year 2022 has witnessed a surge in demand for finance and governance roles across the financial services sector," said Vinal Vikamshi, director, corporate functions, Native.

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There is also a great demand for senior talent across audit, legal and compliance functions in fintechs and NBFCs, she added.

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Rajkamal Vempati, president and head of human resources at Axis Bank, said: "Every single regulator is coming up with new compliance and regulatory requirements and that is leading to the need for experienced senior-level risk, compliance and audit professionals to cater to issues such as customer service and resolution, cybersecurity and information security, among others." Data show that of the total 200 senior level moves, 28% were to NBFCs, 24% to banks, 17% to fintechs and 11% to PE funds.

Neelabh Sanyal, cofounder of online wealth management platform Kuvera, said: "Financial services businesses are subject to a higher level of regulatory compliance and scrutiny. As we diversify into multiple segments of wealth and personal finance, we would like to keep strengthening our compliance team." By 2023, compliance will be very important for fintech firms, thus leading to more hires, said Jitendra Dhaka, cofounder of fintech company BankSathi.

"Financial laws and regulations are becoming more stringent as financial services are becoming tech dependent for disrupting the market with bleeding-edge artificial intelligence or machine learning technology."

As the RBI is coming up with new regulations almost every quarter, it compels the industry players to have strong senior management teams to guide them, said Priyank Kothari, director of fintech and venture firm Arvog.

Financial compliance is important since it helps mitigate the risk of a company being shut down due to non-compliance, said Harish Parmar, founder of debt solution firm SingleDebt. "Introducing and offering new financial services to the Indian public, it is very important to understand the relevant financial laws and regulations."

  • Published On Dec 12, 2022 at 07:57 AM IST
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