Director, Personal Lending Credit Strategy & Performance

at  BMO Financial Group

33 Dundas Street West Toronto Ontario,M5G 3C2

The Director, Personal Lending Credit Strategy and Portfolio Performance, is part of Credit Risk Management function in a collaborative environment that supports Consumer Unsecured Lending segment of the bank, including Line of Credit, Personal Loans, Student Loans, Overdraft Protection, etc. The incumbent will have high visibility to senior executives and will be a recognized contributor who impacts the client experience and bank’s results. Some main responsibilities are:

• Oversees portfolio performance and account management activities and optimizes the quality of unsecured lending books.
• Acts as a key point of contact and trust advisor for the lines of business in all product initiatives and discussions pertaining to operating within risk appetite, providing independent risk oversight, and ensuring that growth initiatives are optimized for both risk and return.
• Leads a high performing team to develop and maintain acquisition strategies using analytical solutions to enable high-quality, fact-based decisions for a designated risk portfolio, within Personal Lending segment.
• Develops and maintains in-depth knowledge of business product strategies and related risk management requirements and legislative/regulatory directives.

Develops and maintains risk decision-support strategies using analytical solutions to enable high-quality, fact-based decisions for a designated risk portfolio. Supports the development of the strategy and roadmap for data quality, data analytics, data modeling, reporting, business intelligence, and the design and development of sophisticated decision support tools.

• Fosters a culture aligned to BMO purpose, values and strategy and role models BMO values and behaviours in all that they do.
• Ensures alignment between values and behaviour that fosters diversity and inclusion.
• Regularly connects work to BMO’s purpose, sets inspirational goals, defines clear expected outcomes, and ensures clear accountability for follow through.
• Builds interdependent teams that collaborate across functional and operating groups to create the highest value for all stakeholders.
• Attracts, retains, and enables the career development of top talent.
• Improves team performance, recognizes and rewards performance, coaches employees, supports their development, and manages poor performance.
• Acts as a trusted advisor to senior leaders for making business decisions and implementing strategic initiatives.
• Develops an expert understanding of business/group challenges.
• Networks with industry contacts to gather competitive insights and best practices.
• Recommends measures to improve organizational effectiveness.
• May consult to or serve on various committees and task forces.
• Interprets new regulations and assesses impacts to the risk strategy framework.
• Influences and negotiates to achieve business objectives.
• Identifies emerging issues and trends to inform decision-making.
• Recommends business priorities, advises on resource requirements and develops roadmap for strategic execution.
• Manages resources and leads the execution of strategic initiatives to deliver on business and financial goals.
• Measures the effectiveness of risk decision strategy management framework; recommends changes as required.
• Conducts independent analysis and assessment to resolve strategic issues.
• Leads the development and maintenance of the risk strategy management framework.
• Acts as the prime contact for internal/external stakeholder relationships, which may include regulators.
• Represents the decision strategy function during internal/external regulatory audits and/or examinations.
• Ensures alignment between stakeholders.
• Designs and produces regular and ad-hoc reports, and dashboards.
• Develops and manages comprehensive information management systems; designs and/or leads initiatives to improve processes, analysis and reporting.
• Defines business requirements for analytics & reporting to ensure data insights inform business decision making.
• Breaks down strategic problems, and analyses data and information to provide insights and recommendations.
• Leads change management programs of varying scope and type, including readiness assessments, planning, stakeholder management, execution, evaluation and sustainment of initiatives.
• Assesses and adapts existing operational programs; develops new capabilities to ensure ongoing success.
• Leads the execution of operational programs; assesses and adapts as needed to ensure quality of execution.
• Leads and integrates the monitoring, measurement & reporting on the status of the risk decision strategy performance to internal & external stakeholders.
• Leads the management of governance meetings and maintenance of governing body mandates, oversight and approval guidelines.
• May provide specialized support for other internal and external regulatory requirements.
• Leads in the design, implementation and management of core business/group processes.
• Develops and maintains risk strategies using analytics, predictive modelling and business rules to optimize decisions and productivity.
• Supports the planning and execution of the change management process including simulation, validation testing and reporting requirements to evaluate the effectiveness of the new or modified strategies.
• Provides advice and guidance to assigned business/group on implementation of analytical solutions.
• Develops and maintains in-depth knowledge of business product strategies and related risk management requirements and legislative/ regulatory directives.
• Works with stakeholders to identify the business requirements, understand the profitability structure, the risk / return assessment and the expected outcomes.
• Works with data owners to discover and select available data sources from internal sources and external vendors (e.g. lending system, payment system, external credit rating system) to fulfill analytical needs.
• Works with internal and external stakeholders to understand the capabilities of risk models and core risk systems to ensure effectiveness of risk decision strategies.
• Builds effective relationships with internal/external stakeholders.
• Ensures alignment between stakeholders.
• Summarizes statistical findings and draws conclusions and presents actionable business recommendations.
• Presents findings & recommendations in a simple, clear way to drive action.
• Consults with stakeholders to improve consistency and transparency of risk measurement, metrics and reporting.
• Monitors and tracks performance; addresses any issues.
• Operates at a group/enterprise-wide level and serves as a senior specialist resource across BMO.
• Influences how teams/groups work together.
• Applies expertise and thinks creatively to address unique or ambiguous situations and to find solutions to multiple, interdependent, complex problems.
• Communicates abstract concepts in simple terms.
• Fosters strong internal and external networks and works with and across multiple teams to achieve business objectives.
• Anticipates trends and responds by implementing appropriate changes.
• Broader work or accountabilities may be assigned as needed.QUALIFICATIONS:
• Typically 9+ years of relevant experience and post-secondary degree in related field of study or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Expert product knowledge for the designated business / portfolio.
• Expert knowledge of risk management theory, processes and portfolio management reporting techniques.
• Expert knowledge of modelling & analytics concepts and applications.
• Expert knowledge of risk systems technology.
• Expert knowledge of regulatory requirements.
• Seasoned expert with extensive industry knowledge.
• Technical leader viewed as a thought leader for innovation.
• Verbal & written communication skills - Expert.
• Analytical and problem solving skills - Expert.
• Influence skills - Expert.
• Collaboration & team skills; with a focus on cross-group collaboration - Expert.
• Able to manage ambiguity.
• Data driven decision making - Expert.

• Oversees portfolio performance and account management activities and optimizes the quality of unsecured lending books.
• Acts as a key point of contact and trust advisor for the lines of business in all product initiatives and discussions pertaining to operating within risk appetite, providing independent risk oversight, and ensuring that growth initiatives are optimized for both risk and return.
• Leads a high performing team to develop and maintain acquisition strategies using analytical solutions to enable high-quality, fact-based decisions for a designated risk portfolio, within Personal Lending segment.
• Develops and maintains in-depth knowledge of business product strategies and related risk management requirements and legislative/regulatory directives