Meridian Credit Union Looking for Senior Manager, Business Banking Lending Operations at St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Full Time

At Meridian our aspiration is to integrate our purpose into everything we do for people, the planet, and communities. We believe that our greatest opportunity is to create opportunity and meet people where they are.

Our Business Banking Practice:

At Meridian, our vision is to be recognized as the financial institution that has the most local impact, supported by a purpose-driven Value Proposition to our Members.

We take the time to get to know our Members’ business, anticipate their needs and provide customized solutions. After all, our obligations are to our Members, not shareholders, and we take to heart the best interests of our Members and communities we serve! We’re passionate about what we can do for their business, and we’re empowered to leverage our local autonomy to meet their unique needs.

In addition to building customized solutions for business, we offer full service commercial banking solutions, including a wide selection of daily banking products, complementary lending services, cash management solutions, as well as insurance and investments.

Is this role right for you? In this role, you will:

Senior Manager BBLO is accountable for oversight and management of the operations model for the fulfillment functions for the Business Banking LOB, including all lending fulfillment. In addition to being ultimately responsible for this operations group, this role will also oversee initiatives, implement processes/programs with focus on service optimization for the enterprise. The role will be responsible for measuring and reporting on key service metrics, improving existing processes, and providing quality assurance and governance on day-to-day operations.

Effective and timely delivery of support services, processing, initiatives and projects, while mitigating operational and reputational risk, and ensuring compliance to industry rules and regulations is the responsibility of the Senior Manager, Business Banking Operations. This individual will be expected to have strong partnership and collaboration with key stakeholders in Business Banking, Business Credit Department, Legal Services and Internal Audit Services, as well as support the Senior Manager, Syndication Operations.

The Senior Manager is particularly involved with the day-to-day closing of lending transactions with external solicitor law firms for Meridian’s Business Members. The transactions are generally complex and can be multi-million dollar loans. The Senior Manager would be expected to coordinate cross-functional meetings to address any nuances and developments on these transactions that would fall outside the Operations function, identify learning opportunities, and look to incorporate precedent scenarios into best practices for future efficiencies.

Management & Decision-Making

• Key escalation point for day-to-day operations on highly complex financial transactions in the Small Business and Commercial lines of business.
• Escalations require coordination with several departments to determine the correct stakeholders are engaged to address risk and legal items, translate the impact of those items to closing the transaction, and directing the team how to proceed.
• Decision-making should show an ability to proactively identify the correct stakeholders, anticipate downstream impact, and work towards an enterprise solution that balances Member Experience, Risk, and Efficiency.
• Manage solicitor performance on transactions and any escalations with inaccuracy or subpar work on account of the solicitor.
• Develops a high performing, engaged, and flexible workforce within an exciting and fun environment. Encourages individual contribution at all levels and directs focus on service quality and operational excellence.
• Builds future capability/scalability, develops and implements policies and processes required to maximize efficiency and consistency across departments, while complying with organization standards, policies and practices.
• Accountable for multiple teams in the delivery of exceptional service that builds trust through responsiveness, accuracy, consistency, and expertise at a high level of efficiency.
• Fosters actions and behaviours that will drive superior business performance, reinforces Member focus, mitigates organizational risk, drives business unit process improvement, and improves ROI.
• Provides leadership, counsel and mentorship to direct reports
• Leads effective performance management processes, employee professional development plans, succession planning and coaching strategies for direct reports.
• Strategic thought leader – challenging direct reports to create opportunities that are rooted in actionable insights.
• Ensures departments are structured appropriately to meet the evolving needs of the organization and the type of work that is being supported; building future capability within the team to ensure service quality is not compromised.
• Acts as a project lead involved implementation, execution, control and completion of specific projects.

Communication

• Actively collaborates with partners, proactively identifies stakeholders, and regularly stays in contact with internal partners.
• Executes and translates vision, strategy and business requirements into clear, actionable goals for direct and indirect reports.
• Self-manages issues within the team but escalates with appropriate detail when warranted.
• Positive communication style that respects all parties and works towards common sense solutions that net benefit the organization.
• Key point of contact for external stakeholders including government partners like Industry Canada, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, etc.

Impact

• Implement and monitor metrics, reporting and goals to ensure quality is maintained and/or enhanced, service quality improves, and productivity increases.
• Uncover ways to improve service level standards and key performance indicators.
• Assist with cross-functional projects varying in size and complexity – providing subject matter expertise and consultation.
• Deliver tangible and measurable operational efficiencies through reduction in errors, decreased cycle time, increased capacity, and/or improved throughput to support future growth.
• Manage approved solicitor list by establishing and monitoring performance scores that ensures Meridian is receiving a high level of expertise from external partners on this work.
• Utilize out of the box thinking to execute effectively and efficiently on new or existing products and services.
• Maintain standardized and accurate department processes while ensuring the necessary controls/documentation are in place to mitigate risk.
• Anticipates change and risk – demonstrates the ability to quickly prioritize work, effectively handle critical issues or competing priorities, and moves with agility from one task to another.

Audit & Compliance

• Key point of contact for audit engagements in Small Business and Commercial lines of business.
• Facilitate and coordinate both internal and external audit engagements, support the auditors with requests, and collaborate on positive, proactive solutions to findings.
• Accountable for documentation and governance of processes within Business Banking Operations.
• Apply an audit lens to new processes and policies, and act as a champion for these considerations at the initiative/project level where warranted.
• Partner with Analytics peers to build proactive management reporting that ensures audit and regulatory requirements are being met and appropriately tested to ensure satisfaction.
• Accountable for quality assurance on transactions beyond efficiency metrics to contribute to a satisfactory risk level across the Business Banking loan portfolio.
• Partner with AML/ATF Compliance Team to ensure adherence to requirements, bring forward matters of non-compliance, and identify issues, risk and recommend solutions – with specific focus on the Small Business Onboarding program.
• Exhibit a thorough understanding of the AML/ATF principles and Privacy Act.

We’d Love to Work with You If You Have the following skills and abilities:

Skills

Knowledge, Skills and Ability

• Excellent communication/presentation and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work independently with confidence and strong commitment to member service.
• Willingness to work flexible hours, and train both on/off the job to improve general business and lending skills.
• Demonstrates a high capacity for increasingly complex workloads.
• Highly motivated self-starter with high energy and a very positive attitude
• A natural curiosity to investigate complex, ambiguous problems using multiple data sources and tools to come up with answers and recommendations
• A strong business acumen and can translate insights into actionable recommendations that align with business objectives
• Ability to work independently and in a team-oriented environment
• Continuously innovates to achieve great results
• Possess a strong attention to detail; be concise without comprising the facts
• Experience in conducting analysis and working with diverse data sets, both structured and unstructured.
• Experience/training in the development of reporting and analytics considered an asset
• Able to meet established schedules and deadlines on time and on budget.
• Results-oriented with excellent communication, analytical and strong multi-tasking skills.
• Demonstrated interest and experience in corporate responsibility, sustainability, environment, governance and social impact

Experience

• Five or more years progressive financial services experience required.
• Three or more years management experience required.
• Business Banking experience in a credit writing, adjudication or legal setting required
• Knowledge of Ontario real estate laws would be an asset.
• Knowledge of government lending programs would be an asset.
• Experience in managing multiple departments.
• Demonstrated ability and creativity in developing and implementing department specific process improvement initiatives.
• Problem-solving experience in a fast-paced, deadline environment.

Knowledge/Education

• An undergraduate degree with an economics, finance, or business focus.
• Solid knowledge of the banking products and services, processes, systems, and applications – K2, KnowledgeLake, ServiceNow, Ovation, ACE, Microsoft Office.
• Experience with Meridian’s business credit policies and iLend loan origination system would be an asset.
• Knowledge of process improvement principles and techniques is an asset.

Office Location: 3330 Bloor Street West, Toronto OR 75 Corporate Park Drive, St. Catharines.

Meridian has a remote work policy that allows flexibility for employees to work remotely but also requires regular time in the office for purposeful meetings to collaborate, innovate and build effective relationships with your team, your colleagues and your leader which is very important to us.

What’s in it for you?

• We have an inclusive and collaborative working environment that encourages creativity, curiosity, and celebrates success!
• We provide you with the tools and technology needed to delight your candidates and clients!
• You’ll get to work with and learn from diverse industry leaders, who have hailed from top organizations around the world
• Hybrid work arrangements with in-person office time to collaborate, innovate and build relationships with your colleagues
• This isn’t your typical “corporate” job. We work hard and we have fun!

Who we are:

Meridian is Ontario’s largest credit union, and second largest in Canada, helping to grow the lives of our more than 360,000 Members. Meridian has more than 75 years of banking history and is 100% owned by its members. With 89 retail branches and 15 Business Banking Centers across Ontario and $ 30B in assets under management, Meridian offers a full range of financial products and services to its retail, business banking and wealth members. With over 2000 employees and corporate offices located in Toronto and St. Catharines, Meridian has a track record of creating and delivering innovative new offerings and is committed to investing in the communities that we serve. Our plan is to build on our momentum as we deliver on our purpose – helping our members achieve their best life.

Find our story here: About Meridian

Experience the Difference!

Meridian is committed to promoting an inclusive, accessible environment, where all employees and customers feel valued, respected, and supported. We are dedicated to employing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our communities and Members in which we live and serve.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or disability.

Please note that due to the volume of applications, only those under consideration will be contacted for an interview.

Thank you for your interest in Meridian Credit Union.

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