Building High-Trust Lending Networks
Sanjay Shamnani
Chief Liabilities Officer
Kissht
Building High-Trust Lending Networks
Sanjay Shamnani
Chief Liabilities Officer
Kissht
India’s lending ecosystem is no longer defined by access to capital. The real differentiator today lies in how well institutions anticipate liquidity pressures, translate financial complexity into operational clarity, and build trust that holds through cycles of scrutiny and regulation. As digital-first NBFCs scale rapidly, the spotlight has shifted to leaders who understand that confidence is earned long before numbers appear on balance sheets and sustained through disciplined governance, transparency, and partnership-led thinking. Practising this approach is Sanjay Shamnani, whose career has unfolded at the intersection of treasury strategy, liability management, and institutional trust. Over more than a decade, his work across NeoGrowth, IDBI Trusteeship, consulting, and nearly eight defining years at Kissht has been shaped by one consistent principle: financial leadership matters most when it enables foresight, alignment, and confidence across stakeholders. From liquidity optimisation and structured fundraising to co-lending frameworks and lender partnerships, his journey reflects a steady evolution rooted in execution rather than optics. In an exclusive conversation with TradeFlock, Sanjay reflects on the lessons that shaped his leadership, the systems that underpin trust in digital lending, and how India’s fintech ecosystem is likely to evolve as capital, technology, and responsibility become inseparable.
What leadership lessons shaped your journey to becoming Chief Liabilities Officer at Kissht?
As I grew into this role, I realised how essential it is to understand where the numbers are heading long before they show up on reports. Strategic vision matters only when it helps you anticipate financial outcomes, align plans with intent, and maintain discipline on liquidity, ALM, partner diversification, and leverage. These became the pillars of how I approach the work. Another lesson stayed with me throughout this journey. Finance often sounds complex to people outside the function, so translating it into simple language for product, technology, or payments makes a huge difference. They build stronger journeys and integrations when they understand the financial purpose behind them, which builds trust within the organisation. This clarity is what ultimately helps teams move together rather than in silos.
Please share strategies that have helped you build strong, trusted partnerships in debt and co-lending markets.
Trust in the debt market grows through consistency. Over the years, I found that banks respond best when communication is proactive and transparent. They want regular updates on portfolio performance, key indicators, and the action plans for the upcoming quarters. Confidence drives this entire space, and it grows when data is shared regularly, whether through cohort analysis, liquidity insights, or ALM reporting. A mindset shift made a big difference as well. When a company approaches a bank purely as a borrower, the relationship stays limited to repayment comfort. When you approach them as partners, the conversation becomes collaborative. Many times, designing a product that fits a bank’s agenda has encouraged them to allocate funds across different product buckets in our portfolio. It turns the association into a real partnership instead of a transaction.
What mindset should leaders adopt to build lender and customer trust in digital lending, and how does technology enable this?
In digital lending, trust comes from how clearly the entire system works. Customer onboarding, validation layers, decisioning aligned with internal BREs, and full compliance with RBI guidelines form the non-negotiable foundation. Without this, the rest does not hold. Once the basics stand strong, technology brings trust to life. Partners value access to live dashboards, automated reconciliation, API-based data flow, and rule-driven decisions that remove ambiguity. Customers feel more comfortable when communication is simple, the UI is intuitive, reminders arrive on time, and their offers are transparent. When each of these pieces falls into place, lenders, partners, and customers gain confidence in the digital journey.
How do you foster a culture of accountability and innovation, and what challenges have you navigated along the way?
Over the years, I have come to understand that accountability begins when people know exactly what they own and what outcomes are tied to their work. When a team is empowered with this clarity, they tend to deliver stronger results. Leaders often feel the need to get involved everywhere, yet progress happens when teams are trusted with the responsibilities they came in for. Mistakes will happen, and I believe they should be seen as part of the learning cycle because they push individuals to think more carefully in future decisions. Since every team member works differently, sensible allocation of work and a supportive environment play a big role. Sharing examples of past mistakes helps people learn, and cross-functional pods reduce silos and maintain productivity. My approach is to guide the team by setting the tone rather than controlling every detail.
"The next wave of Indian fintech will belong to leaders who turn complexity into clarity, build absolute trust through transparency, and treat every lender as a strategic partner."
How do you mentor emerging leaders to grow confidently into larger fintech roles?
Mentoring starts with noticing the people who naturally push beyond their defined limits and show readiness to grow. Giving them complete ownership of tasks, or even of an entire partnership, teaches them real responsibility. They also need a safe space where mistakes are encouraged, provided they lead to meaningful learning. Structured feedback becomes important because it shapes how they think about problems. Sometimes the best way to understand their potential is to place them in challenging situations, such as negotiations or review meetings. These experiences build confidence and prepare them for bigger roles in the fintech environment.
As Chief Liabilities Officer, what does your day-to-day responsibility look like, and what kind of challenges define the role today?
The role of a Chief Liabilities Officer revolves around one core mandate: ensuring a stable, affordable, and compliant funding ecosystem. On a daily basis, this requires close attention to micro-level variables such as interest rate movements, asset-liability alignment, liquidity buffers, and timely regulatory reporting. Equally important is maintaining strict adherence to lender documentation and repayment schedules, where even minor lapses can carry disproportionate consequences. Beyond operational discipline, the role demands constant awareness of macro-level shifts. Changes in lender risk appetite, capital deployment strategies, government policy decisions, and concentration risks across funding partners all influence funding continuity. Addressing these variables requires forward-looking ALM strategies, typically planned over a 12-month horizon, and a zero-tolerance approach toward compliance. The balance lies in staying agile without compromising financial or regulatory integrity.
How have expectations from fintech platforms evolved for institutional lenders and end users compared to five years ago?
Institutional lenders today expect fintech platforms to demonstrate a far deeper level of risk intelligence than before. Robust credit assessment frameworks, supported by data-driven scoring models and fraud detection parameters, are no longer optional. Lenders now look for clarity on how these models function, how scenarios are stress-tested, and how early behavioural signals are translated into preventive interventions before delinquency sets in. Alongside risk capability, funding strategy has gained prominence. Diversified funding lines, strong capital discipline, and credible long-term investors have become essential indicators of platform stability. Alignment between investor thesis and fintech objectives is critical to lender confidence, particularly during market cycles that test liquidity resilience. Operational expectations have also evolved significantly. Lenders increasingly value seamless, scalable onboarding systems built on straight-through processing, system interoperability, customisation flexibility, and near-zero tolerance for downtime. These capabilities are now considered foundational rather than differentiating. User expectations have shifted equally decisively toward simplicity and transparency. A frictionless onboarding journey with minimal manual input, supported by account aggregators and automated data capture, has become the norm. Clear communication around loan terms, pricing, tenure, and charges is essential for building trust. Alongside this, users expect responsive support mechanisms with defined resolution timelines and strong data confidentiality standards, especially in a fully digital, non-face-to-face lending environment.
With AI-enabled UPI payments and conversational finance becoming a reality, how do you see fintech evolving by 2035, and what will it mean for your role?
Fintech evolution so far has been largely centred on consumer and unsecured credit. Over the next decade, the focus is likely to expand into secured and income-generating asset classes. Digitisation and tokenisation of land records, along with standardised vehicle registries across states, could unlock significant lending opportunities that were previously operationally complex or fragmented. At the same time, the maturation of digital payments will enable more accurate cash flow visibility, particularly for MSMEs. This enables the design of highly contextual lending products tailored to specific industry clusters, whether working capital solutions for traditional manufacturing segments or term loans for capital-intensive enterprises. As these capabilities mature, the role of finance leaders will increasingly centre on structuring products that blend data-led insight with prudent risk frameworks, while ensuring scalability and compliance remain uncompromised.
What guidance would you offer young finance professionals aspiring to build careers at the intersection of capital, technology, and responsibility?
Fintech may appear technology-driven on the surface, but finance remains its foundation. Technology enhances efficiency and access, yet it does not replace financial judgment. Young professionals entering this space should prioritize a strong understanding of financial fundamentals while becoming fluent in the language of technology. Familiarity with APIs, data structures, and the basics of how AI and machine learning models influence underwriting decisions has become increasingly valuable. Given the interconnected nature of fintech systems, the ability to collaborate across functions and avoid siloed thinking is critical. Regulation should be approached as an enabler rather than an obstacle, as sustainable innovation emerges when compliance and creativity evolve together. Unlike traditional corporate environments that often emphasize hierarchy, fintech rewards adaptability, ownership, and outcome-driven thinking. Curiosity, integrity, and a willingness to learn continuously remain the most enduring differentiators for long-term success in this ecosystem.
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