BharatPe Group appointed Aparna Kuppuswamy as its chief risk officer (CRO).  In a press statement, the company claimed that Kuppuswamy has nearly thirty years of work experience in the consumer banking industry with extensive expertise in managing portfolios across all major product lines including credit cards, mortgages, and unsecured personal loans. 

Kuppuswamy will be leading the risk portfolio across the BharatPe Group of companies, including the merchant and consumer businesses. She will be working closely with the CFO and interim CEO, Nalin Negi, to further build a robust lending vertical at BharatPe.

Amit Jain, who is currently the Chief Risk Officer of BharatPe will be working closely with Aparna and will be investing more of his time in collections and underwriting, from a merchant standpoint.

Prior to the fintech unicorn, she was working as the CRO at SBI Cards. According to BharatPe, Kuppuswamy led a number of key projects in the company. Under her leadership, SBI Cards was successful to grow its portfolio by more than 20x. It also helped SBI Cards to go public. 

Talking on the latest development, Nalin Negi, chief financial officer (CFO) and interim CEO of BharatPe, said, “ At BharatPe, we are committed to addressing the $380 billion credit gap for MSMEs and small merchants. In the coming months, we will aggressively focus on building the lending business across Bharat as well as roll out a range of credit products for our merchant partners and consumers.”

“Aparna with her in-depth understanding of all facets of risk strategy, credit policy and portfolio management, as well as extensive industry and product knowledge, will play a vital role in the next phase of our growth story as well as helping us in becoming IPO ready. Additionally, Aparna’s understanding of the consumer side of financial services will help us build cutting-edge products that are not only relevant, but also are risk aversive,” he added. 

“In just four years, BharatPe has emerged as one of the biggest flag bearers of digital payments and B2B (business-to-business) lending in the country. Today, it has an entrenched network of over one crore merchants in more than 400 cities. The company has also done phenomenal work in facilitating credit to merchants – with over Rs. 8000 crores worth of loans facilitated to lakhs of merchants across the country. I am really excited to be a part of the promising organization and spearhead the risk and credit strategy for the BharatPe Group of companies.”