Collections Manager

Organizational Context

Key Aspects:

• Part of the Aditya Birla Capital Limited, Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited (ABHFL) is registered with the National Housing Bank as a housing finance company under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987. The company offers a complete range of housing finance solutions such as home loans, home improvement and home construction loans, balance transfer and top-up loans, loans against property and construction finance. The company acquired its license on 9th July 2014 and has aggressive growth plans.
• ABHFL has grown at a steady rate while reporting good asset quality despite challenges in the operating environment. While the industry is dominated by five large groups, there has been an emergence of segments like Affordable and self-employed borrowers, given the high potential in these segments. Despite increased focus by banks, HFCs have been able to maintain their share in the mortgage market. and is poised for rapid growth and plans to grow 5X (40,000 Cr) in the next 5 years. This shall take ABHFL within the top 5 percentile of HFCs in the country. 
• The ABHFL Sales organization works broadly with 3 customer segments – retail (individual) customers, institutional customers (for retail and institutional loan consumers) and builders (for both retail tie-ups and construction finance), with a major share of the business coming from retail customers. Client segments can also be divided into Salaried and Self-employed, with both of these having very different preferences and needs.

Job Context

The Risk & Compliance function carries out monitoring of client wise exposure and portfolio exposure to identify ‘early warning signals’ of stress and to minimize NPAs. Currently monitoring is done in association with Business Teams as RMG does not have presence at Branch level. It carries out over due loan recovery from defaulting clients in coordination with Business Teams.

Key Challenges

• To enable enhanced business profitability through the effective management of the delinquent portfolio for Housing Finance for the delinquent portfolio in the City / Cities managed

• To achieve the desired collections efficiencies across products managed

• Ensure that adequate Collections Intensity of follow up is executed for all Delinquent accounts

• Continuously review the location portfolio and report Early Stress Accounts / Potential Delinquent customers to RCM / Head – Collections & RISK team.

• Ensure that all Collections Activities are properly documented in the form of Collections Trails

•          Ensure that all Collections Processes & Risk Governance Mandates rolled out are completely adhered to at each location.

•          Negotiate on critical delinquent accounts and obtain repayments to minimize losses.

•          Liaison with Legal / law enforcement agencies for speedy recovery of delinquent/write off cases.

•          Provide feedback on the effectiveness of Collections Strategies formulated and implemented.

•          Coordination with legal team for all collections legal cases. 

KNOWLEDGE / SKILLS / EXPERIENCE

•          Graduate / Post-Graduate

•          Minimum 6-8 Yrs of experience in related field as Collections Manager / location head. Exposure to Credit and other line function is desirable.

•          Experience in agencies /vendors management.

•          An initiator with very high level of energy.

•          Ability to meticulously plan, initiate and implement collections strategies designed by Central/Regional teams.

•          Strong interpersonal skills and good team player.

•          Excellent leadership, Analytical, Negotiation, influencing and communication skills.

•          Market understanding and collections/Fraud techniques.

Manage the collections process at a Location / City level, streamlining operations and working to minimize the costs of default and bad debt

• Monitor customer accounts delinquent in the city / cities managed, identifying and flagging likely cases of default or delayed payment
• Work with non-performing\delinquent borrowers to create optimum recovery solutions.
• Ensure that all documentation related to the collections process is maintained in accordance with internal norms and regulatory requirements.
• Respond to customer complaints regarding the collections process, taking steps to ensure a satisfactory outcome for both ABFL as well as its customers.
• Plan and implement periodic audits of the collections teams, ensuring their compliance with all relevant policies and regulations.

Coordinate with the legal team and Middle / Senior management in the event of escalated cases to ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

Liaise with internal and external agencies to drive the collections process in an efficient manner

• Review the status of outstanding collections on a periodic basis with vendor collections agencies; plan and implement corrective action to ensure timely collections
• Oversee the selection process for external agencies, ensuring adequate training of the collections staff
• Liaise with external collections agencies to ensure collection of overdue debts in a timely manner

Liaise with legal / law enforcement authorities on escalated cases to ensure a speedy recovery process

NA

Internal

1. Regional Manager – Collections / Head Collections

1. Team members in other Risk functions

1. Operations Team / Underwriting

1. Legal 

1. Fortnightly & Monthly

1. Monthly

1. Weekly

1. Need Based

1. Portfolio & Mkt update / Review

2. New policy formulation, discussions, credit proposals, Market information etc.

3. Discussion on system updating of Collections Cases, MIS, Bounce details etc.

4. Discussion on Legal triggers/ status updates on Delinquent accounts

External

1. Clients, Channel partners

1. Corporate CRC teams

1. Legal experts, consultants

1. Peers in Industry

1. Daily / Weekly

1. Need Based

1. Need Based

1. Need based

1. Visits / discussions on portfolio.

1. Reviews, case updates, exception reporting, etc
2. Discussion on legal matters, recovery mechanism and updates, etc.

1. Market intelligence, networking, etc