Venator Search Partners has released the survey on “Leadership hiring across India’s BFSI sector is entering a phase of consolidation”, emphasising how institutions are increasingly prioritising risk management, governance, and stability as they prepare for 2026.
Data from 2025 highlights a clear shift in leadership priorities, with Chief Risk Officers emerging as the most sought-after CXO role outside the CEO position. When combined with Chief Compliance Officers and Chief Financial Officers, control functions accounted for 22.4 per cent of all senior leadership movements, signalling that nearly a quarter of leadership focus is now directed towards safeguarding asset quality, capital adequacy, and regulatory compliance. This trend is expected to strengthen further in 2026.
The findings are based on Venator Search Partners’ tracking of 76 leadership movements at MD, CEO, and CXO levels across 16 large NBFCs and HFCs during 2024 and 2025. The sample includes six NBFCs and ten HFCs, comprising nine listed and seven unlisted entities, representing a substantial portion of India’s retail and wholesale credit ecosystem.
A notable trend in 2025 has been heightened churn at the top. Multiple transitions at the MD and CEO level point to rising leadership pressures driven by regulatory scrutiny, stress in unsecured loan portfolios, and growing board expectations. This mirrors broader corporate trends, with India recording 141 CEO exits in FY25, up from 119 in FY24, reinforcing the view that leadership tenures are becoming shorter and increasingly performance driven.
Hiring strategies across BFSI institutions reflect a balance between internal continuity and external recalibration. Internal promotions accounted for 55.3 per cent of leadership appointments, while 44.7 per cent were external hires. Six organisations filled all leadership roles internally, while two opted entirely for external hiring, indicating strategic overhauls rather than routine succession planning.
Among external hires, sector familiarity remained critical. Nearly 59 per cent of leaders were sourced from banks, while close to 30 per cent came from other NBFCs or HFCs, underlining the premium placed on regulatory knowledge and credit experience amid ongoing asset quality concerns.
Beyond control roles, business leadership hiring points to a recalibration of growth priorities. Business and Product Heads comprised 26.7 per cent of leadership movements, reflecting a shift from aggressive expansion to portfolio resilience, margin protection, and a greater focus on secured lending.
Operational efficiency has also gained prominence. People and Operations roles represented 24.4 per cent of leadership appointments, highlighting a move from scale-led hiring to productivity and cost optimisation. Institutions are increasingly restructuring operations around digital workflows, while HR leadership is focusing on specialised capabilities such as underwriting discipline, fraud prevention, and digital collections.
Gender diversity at senior levels remains limited. Women accounted for 14.5 per cent of leadership appointments, though all female leaders recorded upward career movement, pointing to strong merit-based progression but constrained representation.
Professional diversity also remained narrow, with 87.8 per cent of leaders drawn from financial services backgrounds. Banking accounted for 39.2 per cent, while NBFCs and HFCs contributed 33.8 per cent. Only 12.2 per cent of leadership hires came from outside financial services, reinforcing the sector’s preference for domain expertise over cross-industry talent.
Commenting on the findings, Deepraditya Datta, Founder, Venator Search Partners, said, “Leadership hiring today reflects a sector prioritising discipline over disruption. Boards are clearly signalling that resilience, judgement, and regulatory comfort will define leadership success in the next cycle.”
As BFSI institutions look ahead to 2026, leadership signals from 2025 point to sustained emphasis on risk-anchored decision-making, with growth-oriented roles likely to regain prominence only once asset quality stabilisation becomes more entrenched.
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