Meet Ashutosh Singh, Head of Product for Digital Loan Origination at SBS. Originally from India, Ashutosh began his career as a software developer before taking a leap of faith and moving to France to continue his studies. Guided by a mindset of continuous improvement and a simple goal – learning something new every day – he learned French, reinvented his career, and ultimately transitioned from software development into Product Management.
Today, he leads the development of SBS’s Digital Loan Origination solutions, helping banks transform one of their most critical processes through automation and AI. In this interview, he reflects on his journey, his vision for the future of lending, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Outside of work, you’ll likely find him running, cycling, or simply exploring the streets of Paris. And if there’s one reason he happily admits brought him to France in the first place, it’s his love of travel and discovery.
You grew up in India, trained as an engineer, then ended up leading product at a French banking software company. How did that happen?
I grew up in India, where I studied engineering before starting my career as a software developer. After three years, I felt ready for a new challenge and decided to pursue my studies and career in France. At the time, I didn’t speak a word of French and relied heavily on Google Translate! I joined ESSEC for a master’s degree in management, initially planning to specialize in corporate finance. In the end, my career took a different path, and I became a Product Manager. In 2020, I joined October, a lending platform for businesses, where I could combine product development with my interest in the financial sector. Then, in 2024, SBS acquired October, and I became part of SBS.
You’ve experienced banking in both India and France. What struck you most about the difference?
When I arrived in France, I was surprised by how different the banking experience was compared with India. Instant payments have been common in India for more than a decade; you could send money instantly with a QR code or a phone number long before it became widespread elsewhere. Indian banks were already offering seamless digital experiences, while some transactions in France could still take days to appear.
This progress was largely driven by financial inclusion. For many people, especially small merchants and street vendors, smartphones became the simplest way to access financial services and make or receive payments.
In 2024, SBS acquired October, the fintech where you were working. How did the product evolve?
October was a business lending company with a simple promise: provide lending decisions within days, while traditional banks often took several weeks. To achieve that, we automated the decision-making process and adopted artificial intelligence early on to support underwriting.
For me, the acquisition was also an opportunity to rethink the product from a new perspective. The focus shifted from serving a single lender to building a SaaS platform that could support multiple banks with different processes and requirements. The challenge was to preserve the speed and simplicity that made it successful while making it flexible enough to meet the needs of different institutions. We moved from a tool built for a single company to a banking solution that can be deployed at scale.
You’re currently building an AI-powered credit assessment tool. What does it actually do?
The core idea is to give a loan officer a full picture of a business (financial statements, bank account data, supporting documents) synthesized into a clear risk recommendation that allows the loan officer to make a decision. Today this analysis is slow and largely manual. A bank might spend days pulling information together before anyone can make a real decision. AI accelerates that, helping banks make faster and more consistent decisions while allowing customers to receive an answer much sooner.
Another challenge is that every bank has a different risk appetite, and AI models can encode assumptions that are hard to see and harder to explain. We’ve had to make the scoring fully configurable (each institution sets its own criteria, its own weights) partly so it fits their strategy, and partly so they can actually stand behind the output. A bank can’t approve a loan on the basis of “the model said so.” They need to be able to explain the decision to a regulator, and to the customer. That constraint shapes everything we build.
Why is lending now a strategic issue and a major area of innovation for banks?
Lending remains one of the last banking processes that is still largely manual. Customers often submit documents and then wait, with little visibility into what is happening until a final decision is made. Yet expectations have changed. People are used to simple, fast, and transparent digital experiences, and they expect the same from their bank. At the same time, challengers such as Revolut and Qonto are pushing traditional banks to accelerate their transformation.
Moreover, reviewing a loan application is time-consuming and resource-intensive, but until the loan is approved and funded, the bank generates no revenue. The challenge is therefore to automate and streamline as many steps as possible, reducing operational costs, increasing processing capacity, and delivering a much smoother experience for customers. This is where digital loan origination plays a key role. Its goal is to make lending faster, more efficient, and more profitable.
You’ve talked about listening as the habit that’s shaped your career most. That’s not an obvious answer.
It did not come naturally to me at first. When I arrived in France, I didn’t speak the language, and I had to adapt to a completely new environment. That forced me to become more attentive, more patient, and to listen carefully to others. Over time, I realized that active listening is a true strength. It helps you understand people better, step back, and think before acting. Even today, it helps me make better decisions, work effectively with diverse teams, and better meet customer needs.
Is there a moment from your career that stays with you?
One defining moment in my career happened during my early days at October. At the time, I was still not very comfortable speaking French, yet I had to present the product vision and priorities for the next six months to a large audience that included engineering teams, sales teams, and senior management.
As I presented, I could see the audience’s interest through their reactions and the quality of their questions. More importantly, it became clear that people understood and aligned with the proposed direction. The positive feedback from our CEO was the final confirmation.
That was the moment I gained confidence. I realized that my vision was valuable, that I was capable of aligning different stakeholders, and that I could lead a product strategy even with relatively limited experience. That day, I realized that I belonged in the room.
Looking back, that experience gave me the confidence to lead ambitious transformations. Today, the challenge is helping banks deliver the same level of simplicity, speed, and transparency that customers already expect from every other digital service.
