Consumer Lending Leader I

Are you passionate about Consumer Lending and helping our credit union empower members on their journey to financial wellness? Are you a strategic leader that creates an environment of purpose, belonging and joy for your team while ensuring opportunities for their development. Members First Credit Union is looking for an experienced Consumer Lending Leader to encourage a better tomorrow for our teams and our members.

We strive to create an atmosphere of belonging with no judgment, just opportunity. We are interconnected to each other, and when we embrace out true authentic selves, we are stronger. We will empower you to be the best version of yourself while helping you to flourish in work and life. Come join us to help create thriving communities!

CONSUMER LENDING LEADER I

Exempt

Reports to:  Vice President Lending

Position Overview

The primary purpose of this position is to assist Members First Credit Union to deliver on its mission: To encourage a better tomorrow. To achieve this mission, the position must deliver on our brand promise: We believe in you. Our promise is to be trustworthy, caring, and enthusiastic to help you succeed. You will do this by living out our core values in every service contact to both internal and external members.

Essential Duties

• Through leadership, create a positive, empowering environment for team members to allow for goal success and professional development.
• Recommend policies, procedures, and processes that lead to an environment of continuous improvement to the VP of Lending.
• Thorough knowledge of lending industry, products, and applicable policies and standards. Understanding of government regulations and legal requirements involving lending, collections, insurance and related functions.
• Responsible for maintaining loan procedures for the consumer loan department that are compliant with lending regulations.
• Create, implement, and maintain a lending training program for all new and existing consumer lending team members.
• Review consumer loan portfolio to ensure sound underwriting practices and continued optimization of automated decision engines and utilize knowledge gained to create educational training for consumer lending teams.
• Participate in general management of the credit union as member of the Leadership Team.
• Create and maintain high levels of quality service by delivering on the Credit Union’s Service Promises in every service situation

Duties and Responsibilities

The following statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by this position.  It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required of this position.  Other duties may be assigned to meet business needs.

• Oversees hiring, promotions, transfers, terminations, and other changes in status of assigned employees within department; additional emphasis should be placed on our culture, mission, service promises and standards.
• Reviews, schedules, trains, directs, and monitors the work of branch personnel; conducts performance reviews; succession planning for each branch location; allocates resources to meet operational needs within the departments; reviews and approves, denies, or modifies department recommendations for subordinates.
• Serve as loan officer as needed. Council internal and external members on loans, loan problems, changes in terms of notes, repayment schedules, releases of security, etc.
• Review monthly consumer lending reports for accurate and relevant data. Ensure that procedures and reporting tools allow for effective flow of information through the department.
• Ensure on-boarding, training and orientation for new department employees. Emphasis should be placed on our culture, mission, service promises, and service standards from the beginning.
• Create a scorecard that provides an overview of the goals to the VP of Lending on a monthly basis showcasing key performance indexes.
• Maintain knowledge of competitors’ loan products, rates and terms and other economic trends relating to consumer lending. Make recommendations to VP of Lending on changes that may be needed with current product offerings or to allow the credit union to remain competitive.
• Assists and supports Integration of new products, services, policies, regulation updates, and system upgrades. Ensure that team members are confident and up to date on changes in order to effectively serve the membership. 
• Represent the Consumer Lending department as an engaged Project Owner for Enterprise and Department projects, exploring continued process improvement in consumer lending.
• Establishes, monitors, and improves procedures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the lending functions without decreasing the audit trail and security.
• Participates in establishment of annual consumer loan department budget and monitors performance to budget throughout the year; establishes annual loan goals in conjunction with VP of Lending to achieve strategic goal sets of the organization.
• Implement, monitor and coordinate loan rate changes ensuring that platform are updated, teams are communicated to, and there is no impact to the level of member service.
• Be an active participant on enterprise projects, providing research as needed, and coordinating vendor relationships.
• Review loan audits for consumer loan portfolio on a quarterly basis.
• Make recommendation to the VP of Lending for changes to loan officer limits.
• Monitors performance and service standards of the consumer lending department and ensures standards are being met.
• Lead and speak a message of collaboration with all other departments to ensure initiatives related to lending are pursued and achieved.
• Participate in the evaluation and implementation of various loan origination systems, vendor changes or product launches.
• Monitor and evaluate work quality, efficiency, and productivity. Ensures that optimal efficiency is maintained in lending related activities.
• Ensures that the Credit Union’s professional reputation is maintained throughout lending and business related transactions with members. If appropriate, handles and diffuses escalated member, vendor, business or dealer partner related concerns.
• Works with internal audit department to support the needs and requirements of exams and audits to ensure compliance with regulations and credit union policies.
• Be a champion within the CUNA Lender Development Program, coaching the entire consumer lending group to ensure use of best practice when offering ancillary products.
• Be a visible presence in the local community. Promote the credit union and gain leads through participation in business, community, chamber, and charitable organization activities as assigned.
• Ensure continued education of yourself and team to maintain and demonstrate knowledge and certifications. Attend educational opportunities and meetings as required. Prepare pre and post write-ups on the educational experience and ideas for implementation.
• Seek out opportunities for networking in and out of industry that will allow for personal, professional, and credit union development. Create opportunities for us to be a partner of choice.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Qualifications and Expectations

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the expectations of the person performing this job.

Strives to exceed credit union, department, and personal goals.

• Must have a clear understanding of credit union lending rules and regulations, program, policies, and procedures.
• Strong leadership skills.
• Creates a work environment of empowerment.
• Has a high level of productivity.
• Excellent listening, oral and written communication skills.
• Manages projects successfully from start to finish.
• Understands all deadlines and does what is necessary to meet them.
• Accurate, detailed and a self-starter who can exercise independent judgment when addressing problems.
• Confident and outgoing personality with ability to offer solutions, make decisions, and innovate with new ideas.
• Ability to motivate and positively influence others.
• Must possess excellent organizational skills, attention to details with solid time management skills and well-developed abilities to multi-task.
• Excellent typing and computer skills, including in-house email and core system, Word and Excel.
• Ability to work overtime, attend meetings, seminars and travel.
• Courtesy, tact, and diplomacy are essential elements of the job. Work involves personal contact with others inside and /or outside the organization generally regarding routine matters for purposes of giving or obtaining information, which may require some discussion

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to move or transport up to 25 pounds.
• Able to remain stationary for 2-4 hours at a time.

Work Environment

• Must maintain a neat and orderly work area.
• Routinely clean and disinfect work areas (i.e. teller stations, desk surfaces, phones, electronic equipment).
• Protect the confidentiality of credit union staff and members by locking door or removing items from desk/workstation when away.

Education and Experience

• Three to five years of Consumer Lending or related experience
• (1)Bachelor's degree, or (2) achievement of formal certifications recognized in the industry as equivalent to a Bachelor's degree (i.e. Certified Community Bank Consumer Lender)
• Three to five years of credit experience with a financial institution
• Must possess strong organizational, analytical, and problem solving skills.
• Ability and Willingness to work some evenings and weekends.
• Skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook