Before joining Discover Financial Services as Chief Industry Relations & Regulatory Officer – India, Bharat Panchal was Chief Risk Officer – India, Middle East, and Africa at FIS.
Bharat Panchal, a risk and cybersecurity leader, has joined Discover Financial Services as Chief Industry Relations & Regulatory Officer – India. Panchal would be responsible for policy, regulation, and industry relations in his new position.
Panchal previously worked at FIS as the Chief Risk Officer, India, the Middle East, and Africa, where he was responsible for a large part of a multi-regulatory organization spanning three major regions, as well as leading strategic development and delivery of enterprise risk, cybersecurity, and compliance programs. He also served as SPOC for all security matters, including governance, risk, compliance, cybersecurity, application security, identity and access management, security operations management, business continuity, and disaster recovery. He was also in charge of implementing a risk-based approach to decision-making and providing oversight and accountability for all enterprise risks.
Panchal is a qualified and detail-oriented professional capable of implementing a global cybersecurity vision and strategy for enterprise risk, as well as coordinating security and compliance initiatives in collaboration with leadership and several core business support functions. Working across major industries such as Payments, Digital Banking, Telecommunications, and BFSI, he ensures effective governance, operational efficiency, performance monitoring and measurement of cybersecurity risk, cyber capabilities, and general compliance and security-related actions that are critical to the organization’s business.