Head of Credit Vetting

SUMMARY:
We are seeking a highly experienced, strong-willed, and commercially astute Head of Credit Vetting to build, lead, and optimise a high-performance credit vetting function. This individual will play a critical role in protecting the business from unnecessary credit risk while enabling responsible sales growth through sound decision-making and efficient approval processes. The focus is entirely on front-end credit assessment, pre-approvals, affordability checks, payment structuring, and managing the full credit vetting lifecycle before accounts are handed over for collections or servicing.
The ideal candidate will be a firm, disciplined, person who can make tough calls, enforce standards, challenge poor-quality applications, and build a strong culture of accountability within the department.

POSITION INFO:
Key Responsibilities
Credit Vetting & Decisioning

• Oversee all credit vetting processes for new applicants and existing customers requesting payment plans.
• Conduct and manage pre-approvals, affordability assessments, credit bureau reviews, income verification, and risk profiling.
• Approve, decline, or refer applications in line with internal credit policy and regulatory requirements.
• Assess customer repayment ability and recommend suitable payment plans aligned to affordability.
• Ensure consistent application of lending criteria and risk frameworks.

• Build and lead a credit vetting team from the ground up.
• Recruit, train, coach, and performance manage vetting staff.
• Implement SLAs, productivity metrics, approval turnaround times, and quality standards.
• Create a disciplined, high-output environment focused on speed, quality, and risk control.
• Develop succession plans and team capability.

• Reduce bad debt exposure through strong upfront vetting controls.
• Identify fraud indicators, document manipulation, and high-risk customer behaviour.
• Improve approval quality while balancing commercial conversion targets.
• Analyse approval/decline trends and recommend improvements.
• Work closely with finance, compliance, and operations teams to ensure governance.

• Review current vetting systems and improve workflows.
• Introduce automation opportunities, scorecards, affordability models, and decision trees.
• Create policies and procedures for a scalable credit vetting function.
• Produce management reports on approvals, declines, risk exposure, and pipeline status.

• Proven experience in Credit Vetting / Credit Risk / Underwriting / Loan Assessments.
• Strong background in Micro Lending, Personal Loans, Retail Finance, Consumer Credit, or Fintech lending environments.
• Experience leading or supervising a credit approvals/vetting team.
• Hands-on knowledge of affordability assessments, bureau checks, income verification, and payment plan structuring.
• Strong understanding of the National Credit Act (South Africa) and responsible lending principles.

• Assertive, firm, decisive, and highly accountable.
• Comfortable saying no and making difficult credit decisions.
• Strong attention to detail and zero tolerance for weak controls.
• Operationally hands-on, energetic, and able to build structure from chaos.
• Results-driven with high standards and urgency.

• Micro lending businesses
• Loan providers
• Retail credit providers
• Vehicle finance / unsecured lending
• Fintech credit operations
• Debt counselling or affordability assessment environments