Senior Underwriter

Imagine a world where a customer can walk into any shop or browse any online store and pay in installments with just a few clicks - no bank queues, no physical paperwork, and no credit card hurdles. That is the reality Leanpay has been building for ten years!

We are at the forefront of the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) trend, with a team of professionals in retail, banking and software development who are passionate about changing the old-fashioned way of buying in instalments.

With our 2024 €10M Seres B funding milestone, we are scaling our Romanian operations and solidifying our market leadership in Slovenia . We aren’t just offering a financial product; we are offering retailers a way to grow and customers a way to shop with total digital freedom.

We are currently expanding our LEANPAY I.F.N. S.A. (Leanpay Romania) team and we are looking for a Senior Underwriter to join our us.

Main task

Main task of Senior Underwriter is to ensure credit risk assessment and credit decisions across all of the company's product lines (BNPL, personal loans – GPL, and auto loans), in accordance with the applicable credit policies and decision rules. The role is accountable for the quality, consistency and timeliness of credit decisions, the efficiency of the underwriting process, and providing operational feedback to support the continous improvement of credit policies, decision rules and underwriting processes.

Responsibilities

Operational Underwriting (all products):

• Reviews and decides credit applications not auto-approved or auto-declined (manual review), within the delegated approval authority.
• Verifies customer identity and documents, income, debt-to-income ratio (DTI/DBR) and repayment capacity.
• Consults and interprets Credit Bureau data, ANAF and other internal/external sources.
• Identifies fraud indicators (forged documents, identity theft, multiple applications, data mismatches) and escalates suspicious cases.
• Meets decision turnaround times (SLAs) defined for each channel and product.
• Documents the rationale for each decision in the system (audit trail).
• Prepares and submits for higher-level approval the cases that exceed delegated authority, with a clear recommendation.

Operational Underwriting – All Products

• Reviews and decides credit applications that are not automatically approved or declined, within the delegated approval authority.
• Verifies customer identity, submitted documents and relevant customer information.
• Assesses customer eligibility based on the applicable credit policy and decision criteria.
• Calculates and verifies customer eligibility, including income, existing financial obligations, debt-to-income ratio (DTI/DBR) and repayment capacity, as applicable.
• Consults and interprets information from the Credit Bureau, ANAF and other relevant internal and external sources.
• Identifies discrepancies, potential fraud indicators or other risk-related issues and escalates cases requiring further review.
• Ensures that all required eligibility and underwriting checks are completed before making a credit decision.
• Meets the decision turnaround times (SLAs) defined for the relevant channel and product.
• Documents the rationale for each decision in the system, ensuring a clear audit trail.
• Prepares and submits cases that exceed the delegated approval authority for higher-level approval, together with a clear recommendation.

Policy and Scoring Support

• Applies credit policies, decision rules and eligibility criteria in accordance with the approved framework.
• Handles exceptions strictly within the policy exception framework and documents the rationale for each one.
• Provides regular feedback on rule performance: frequent manual-review triggers, overrides, false declines, emerging fraud patterns and segments that behave differently from the score.
• Proposes policy or rule changes, backed by case examples and data, for the Management decision.
• Supports testing of new rules/scorecards (e.g., UAT, sample case reviews) when requested.

Process Efficiency and Optimization

• Documents and maintains the underwriting process, including procedures, checklists and work instructions.
• Identifies bottlenecks and improvement opportunities (manual review volumes, turnaround times, rework, document requirements) and proposes solutions
• Provides input and supports initiatives aimed at automating and optimizing underwriting workflows, decision engine integrations and data source
• Monitors key underwritign process KPIs (turnaround time, auto-decision rate, manual review rate, backlog) and provides regular reporting.

Underwriting Quality Monitoring

• Monitors the quality and consistency of underwritign decisions,including approvl rates, override rates and recurring issues identified during manual reviews.
• Flags early warning signals and adverse trends to the relevant stakeholders
• Provides feedback to the Collection team regarding customer quality and uses relevant feedback into the underwriting process.

Compliance and Internal Control

• Applies internal policies and relevant legislation in every decision: IFN/NBR rules, consumer credit law , AML/KYC, GDPR and consumer protection.
• Escalates compliance concerns and potential breaches to the relevant stakeholders..
• Supports internal/external audits and inspections; and contributes to the remediation of findings within the scope of the role.
• Maintains data confidentiality and complies with information security requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in economics, finance, mathematics/statistics or equivalent;
• Minimum 5 years in retail credit underwriting/credit risk at a bank or non-bank lender, including at least 2 years in GPL, auto or BNPL. Experience with process improvement or automated decisioning is an advantage;
• Strong knowledge of retail credit processes, income analysis and portfolio metrics;
• Working knowledge of scorecards and decision engines as a user; scorecard development is not required;
• Knowledge of IFN/NBR regulations, AML/KYC, GDPR and consumer credit law;
• Advanced Excel; SQL and/or BI tools (e.g., Power BI) is a plus;
• Familiarity with Credit Bureau/ANAF and anti-fraud tools;
• Process-oriented mindset, ability to document and improve workflows;
• Analytical thinking, fast decision-making under pressure, attention to detail;
• Clear communication and ability to justify decisions and collaborate with commercial teams’
• Integrity and strict confidentiality;
• Good command of English.

Why Leanpay?

You will have an opportunity to work with enthusiastic and experienced professionals in a modern, healthy and encouraging working environment. You can grow as Leanpay grows - we appreciate every team member's contribution and support your personal development.

We also offer:

• A competitive salary based on your experience;
• Meal vouchers;
• Hybrid working model;
• Medical services subscription;
• Up to 26 days of vacation;
• Professional, friendly and open-minded team;
• Opportunity for professional advancement.

We can’t wait to meet you! So, if you believe you are the right person for this job, please send us your CV. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted.