Balaji Venkatachalam Email & Phone Number

Chennai Area, India

At Venzo, we specialize in providing comprehensive trade finance consulting services to banks, focusing on enhancing their RFP processes, vendor evaluations, process reengineering, custom development and UAT. Leveraging our expertise on both Trade Finance and Technology, we ensure that the RFPs issued by banks aligns with the current needs and the strategic objectives.Our rigorous vendor evaluation methodology enables banks to select the most efficient system and maximise the return on investment. With our teams combined experience of more than 200 years of Trade Finance operations and implementation, our team optimizes and enhances the TF operations resulting in exceptional experience to bank’s clients.Furthermore, our community app for trade finance professionals offers concise and valuable content on trade finance concepts, trends, and technologies, promoting continuous learning and industry collaboration.

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Krediq, A digital platform enabling collateral free-financing based on GST invoice data. It helps businesses optimize their working capital in quick time. Through it's vendor financing program, Krediq empowers buyers by providing enhanced cash flow management, strengthening supplier relationships, and offering a competitive edge. It contributes to build a resilient and efficient supply chain, benefiting all parties involved.Krediq supports suppliers to secure easy financing based on GST data through its vendor financing program or invoice discounting program based on their track-record with buyers.For buyers, it helps to build stronger supplier relationships, maintain a competitive edge by securing discounts from suppliers and keeping the supply chain resilient.For sellers, Krediq helps securing financing collateral-free financing, based on GST data through a hassle-free onboarding process.Krediq Financial Technologies is a fintech company that is a neo-bank delivering cutting-edge financing solutions for medium and small enterprises. Pioneers in offering vendor-financing (reverse-factoring) programs and invoice discounting programs for MSME to MSME trade. At Krediq, our vision is to "Empower SMEs with seamless invoice financing, turning financial challenges into opportunities for growth in the digital age."

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Dubai

• Introduce new products under Trade Finance and manage the roll out of the same and provide training and technical expertise to Sales team for marketing the new products.• Prepare road map for the bank to be a leader and competitive in the market in the area of Trade Finance and Factoring services.• Working on the launch of new products under Structured Trade Finance category and Reverse Factoring.• Identify new business opportunities in co-ordination with Corporate banking units and SMEsegment.• Manage the project to enhance the customer online portal for Trade Finance.• Review the existing Trade Finance and Factoring policy and guidelines documentation tostrengthen the controls, and also to enhance the existing product suite to improve the revenue without impacting the risk aspects.• Provide technical advisory to the sales team on deal structures, documentation and other trade finance related matters.• Review and enhance the SLA and TAT laid down for all Trade Finance operations in order to improve Customer service.• Manage the Structured Trade Finance products roll out project including the preparation of product guidelines, legal documentation, procedures & internal processes and obtaining product approval from all internal departments including credit admin and risk.

Dubai

• Manage the team of 20 members that handles Export LC’s advising, LC Transfers, Confirmation, Negotiation, Export Collections, Import Collections and payments• Appraise clients of various Trade Finance products such as Letter of Credits, Documentary collections, Confirmation and Discounting, Invoice discounting, and Buyer’s Credit.• Handle and Resolve customer queries, complaints and provide trade finance expertise tothe clients. • Ensure that the team complies to the internal process and applicable sanctions, and adheres to the agreed SLA set for different products and process the transactions within the defined TAT.• Manage the performance of team members against the KPI set for each of themProjects HandledImplementation of Eximbills Enterprise in Emirates NBD, Egypt (Apr 2014-Sep 2014)• Analyze the gap between the Emirates NBD Egypt trade finance operations and the existing Eximbills Enterprise platform in ENBD, Dubai.• Identified and reviewed the field mapping and accounts mapping for the migration of existing data to Eximbills Enterprise (Trade Finance) and Finacle (core banking).• Prepared the business requirement definition for all the gaps and the interfacing requirements for Eximbills Enterprise with other core systems like Finacle and Swift Alliance Access.Upgrade to Eximbills Enterprise, web based trade finance platform (June 2011 – July 2013)• Manage the project end-to-end, from conducting requirement workshop; preparing BRD; supporting the development; leading the testing team; training and implementation• Performed dual role of Functional Consultant for the technical team (IT), and Testing and Implementation Manager for the Operations team (Business)• Involved in the field mapping for migration of data from CS Eximbills to Eximbills Enterprise• Prepared the business requirement definition for automating the limit approval process fortrade finance transactions through LIMIT Module in the Eximbills Enterprise application.

• As business analyst for all Trade Finance projects and lead the implementation• Manage a team of 10 members that handles Export LC advising, negotiation and payments team• Handle all customer queries and messages received from other banks• Training new staff on Trade Finance concepts and software applicationsProjects Handled in this PositionMerger of Trade finance operations of EBI and NBD May 2009- Nov 2009• Lead the merger activities of two banks Emirates and National Bank of Dubai for trade finance operations.• Analyzed the trade finance database of the two legacy banks and prepared the field mapping document for automated migration of data from CS Eximbills V3.0 to CS Eximbills V4.0.• Generated various reports using TOAD for reconciliation of migrated dataImplementation of Finacle, core banking solution from Infosys June 2008 – May 2009• Played the role of Domain Expert and Quality analyst• Prepared the business requirement document (BRD) for the sub system Eximbills to suit to the migration of core banking solution, from Misys Equation to Finacle and was part of the team that prepared the functional specification document.• Lead the trade finance operations team involved in the implementation of Finacle, core banking solution from Infosys.• Lead the UAT team for Eximbills and Finacle

• Validate all types of trade finance transactions such as LC Advising, Issuance, payments, acceptances and Collection transactions in Eximbills, Trade Finance platform• Solely responsible for implementation of SWIFT standard changes 2006 and 2007 in Eximbills.• Developed the process and procedures for integration of Emirates Bank’s oversees operations in Eximbills.• Part of the operational risk review team.• Involved in the UAT for trade finance loans in the core system, Misys EquationProjects Handled in this PositionImplementation of smartBusiness, online portal for trade finance Apr 2006- May 2008• Gathered requirements from different business unit for various products and prepared the business requirement document.• Designed the front end screens including the validation for each fields to comply with the swift standards• Guided development team with trade finance concepts and assisted in bug fixing• Part of smart Business Implementation team

• FI Insourcing project Implementation - Migration of Allied Irish Bank’s Trade Finance operations onto Bank Trade, a web based Trade Finance application used in Royal Bank of Scotland (earlier ABN AMRO Bank)• Analyzed the trade finance processing/requirements of Allied Irish bank and Lead the testing • Verify and Authorize Import and Export Collection, Letter of credits and Guarantee related transactions• Set up the operations team in RBS Chennai for Allied Irish Bank Trade Finance division

Bachelor Of Engineering (B.E.), Civil Engineering

Education record