#283 How to Build a Finance Function That Scales for 5+ Years, Rishi Oberoi, Deputy CFO and CAO, Varo Bank
In a world where business models, technology, and regulation can all shift in a single planning cycle, building a finance team and infrastructure that still works five years from now is a strategic necessity. Short‑term fixes and ad hoc processes quickly turn into bottlenecks as organizations grow and face deeper scrutiny from investors and regulators.
In this episode, Kevin Appleby speaks with Rishi Oberoi, Deputy CFO and CAO at Varo Bank, about designing a finance function that scales for the long term. Rishi frames finance as a leadership system that enables organizations to move fast without breaking trust, drawing on two decades in global banking, fintech, audit, and capital markets.
Together, they explore why scalable finance is as much about people and principles as it is about processes and platforms. Rishi highlights empathy, humility, and storytelling as core leadership traits, and explains how AI can act as a control sentinel and efficiency driver while preserving customer trust and regulatory rigor in a mission‑driven bank.
Key topics covered:
- Finance should be designed and run as a leadership system, where everyone in the function leads in some way, not just the CFO.
- Scalable finance functions are built on empathy, humility, and values-based hiring, not only on technical skill sets.
- AI’s most powerful role in finance may be as a real-time control sentinel, enhancing compliance, monitoring controls, and supporting faster, safer decision-making.
- Systems should be architected to be modular, vendor-agnostic, and future-ready, designed around what the organization will need in 4–5 years rather than just today’s constraints.
- Finance can and should be a force for good, especially in mission-driven organizations, by balancing profitability with equitable access to financial products for underserved communities.
- Modern CFOs must spend more time looking forward than backward, closing the books quickly so they can focus on strategy, relevance, and long-term value creation.
Links
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 – Kevin introduces Rishi and his global finance career; Rishi outlines his experience building fast-moving, trust-centric finance teams.
- 0:02:21 – Rishi explains why he views finance as one of the world’s foundational leadership systems, shaping economies, companies, and households.
- 0:05:27 – Discussion on leading finance teams with empathy, recognizing life outside work, and hiring for values and learning ability.
- 0:09:46 – Rishi describes how finance must provide a forward-looking view and use storytelling to make numbers meaningful and actionable.
- 0:13:06 – Exploration of AI in finance, including using AI to monitor controls and compliance in real time within regulated environments.
- 0:18:12 – How to design finance systems that are modular, vendor-agnostic, and aligned to where the organization will be in 4–5 years.
- 0:24:26 – Rishi discusses using finance to benefit customers, employees, investors, and regulators, especially in a mission-led bank like Varo.
- 0:26:15 – The tension and balance between serving underserved communities and maintaining regulatory- and investor-grade profitability.
- 0:32:53 – Advice for CFOs to close faster, look further ahead, and focus on keeping their organizations relevant in a fast-changing world.
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