Director of Home Equity Lending at Wintrust Financial

Wintrust is a financial holding company with approximately $50 billion assets under management and traded on the NASDAQ:WTFC. Built on the "HAVE IT ALL" model, Wintrust offers sophisticated technology and resources of a large bank while focusing on providing service-based community banking to each and every customer. Wintrust operates fifteen community bank subsidiaries with over 170 banking locations in the greater Chicago and southern Wisconsin market areas. Additionally, Wintrust operates various non-bank business units including commercial and life insurance premium financing, short-term accounts receivable financing, out-sourced administrative services, mortgage origination and purchase, wealth management services and qualified intermediary services for tax-deferred exchanges.

Why join us?

• An award-winning culture!  We are rated a Top Workplace by the Chicago Tribune (past 9 years) and Employee Recommended award by the Globe & Mail (past 6 years)

• Competitive pay and annual discretionary bonus eligible

• Comprehensive benefit package including medical, dental, vision, life, a 401k plan with a generous company matches and tuition reimbursement to name a few

• Family-friendly work hours

• With 175+ community bank locations, we offer opportunities to grow and develop in your career

• Promote from within culture

Why join this team?

• We are a high performing, collaborative, and diverse team focused on success

• We are a vibrant, team-oriented atmosphere that provides opportunities for individual growth

• Gain experience and further your career by joining a growing organization

Position Overview:

This position is responsible for leading Wintrust’s consumer home equity lending.  This role has multiple dimensions including program strategy, product development, internal stakeholder interaction/alignment, marketing, operating model/credit processing, and customer experience.  This is an enterprise role leading equity lending activities originated through the Wintrust charters, plus such loans originated via Wintrust Mortgage as part of the Wintrust Home Lending Solutions strategy.

What you will be doing:

Development and Execution of Wintrust Consumer Home Equity Lending Strategy:

• Develop multi-phase, long term plan for rebooting Wintrust’s equity lending activities.

• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders in development and execution of plan.

• Develop, recommend and deploy all residential equity lending products at the organizational level for Wintrust.

  • Products may be open or closed ended offerings.

  • Products may be offered through multiple or single channels depending on strategy, target client and other factors.

• Strategy includes deployment of digital tools to improve the client experience and enhance Wintrust’s competitive position in the market.

• Leverage existing platforms (such as Revvin, Encompass, IBS, etc.) to achieve cost efficiency, speed to market and systemic/vendor benefits wherever possible.

• Review, recommend and deploy program credit qualification criteria, including establishing a pathway to incorporate consumer credit scores for earlier borrower qualification and final underwriting.

Partner with Wintrust Mortgage Stakeholders to Develop “Home Lending Solutions” Strategy:

• Develop broader “Home Lending Solutions” deliverables taking advantage of market position and captive borrowers by offering equity products through Wintrust Mortgage.

• Develop go to market strategy in conjunction with Wintrust Mortgage.

• Augment current home lending offerings:

  • Develop “piggyback” loan program

  • Identify opportunities for equity cross-sell opportunities

  • Evaluate pre-qualification program to support cross-sell objectives

  • Evaluate alternative loan structures (i.e. 80/10/10) for implementation

• Evaluate and recommend all facets of strategy including sales objectives and loan originator incentives in alignment with first mortgage compensation structure.

• Evaluate and orchestrate customer journey resulting in an exceptional client experience.

• Identify and assist in the development of the necessary credit processing path to achieve objectives outlined above.

• Develop, monitor and evolve marketing tactics with appropriate stakeholders.

Develop Centralized Credit Processing Operating Model for Branch Originated Loans:

• Talent Management & Development:

  • Build a highly motivated and deeply aligned organization. Defines and communicates responsibilities, expectations, accountabilities and goals for team members.

  • Provides employees with learning opportunities by assigning authority and responsibility to them.

  • Empowers subordinates to make decisions.

  • Provides performance feedback, recognizes contributions and encourages training and development.

  • Ensures business continuity by appropriately forecasting staffing needs.

• Responsible for all personnel activities including recruitment, hiring/firing, oversight, budget planning, etc.

• Partner with Wintrust Consumer Lending Manager and Wintrust Retail Leadership team to develop branch delivery strategy, including relaunch of updated HELOC product.

• Evaluate and recommend sales strategy/framework, including targeted NMLS deployment as may be warranted.

• Partner with Compliance stakeholders to ensure alignment with regulatory and fair banking considerations in new operating model, product offering, etc.

• Develop, monitor and evolve marketing tactics with appropriate stakeholders.

• Consider champion/challenger pilot options to optimize broader retail equity loan delivery.  Multiple facets/approaches may be needed.

• Reduce turnaround time across legacy 15 charters operating in a manual, paper/form based environment by implementing standardized credit process.

• Develop centralized credit processing operating model for equity loans originated through branches (non-Wintrust Mortgage activity)

  • Staffing model/requirements

  • Core functions/responsibilities

  • Job roles

  • Physical office space

  • Technology needs (hardware & software)

• Develop transition plan for migration to centralized operating model

  • Leverage Encompass as the processing engine

  • Leverage Revvin as the customer front end

  • Roles of branch staff vs. centralized team members

  • Training

  • Communication

  • Change management, including transition plan

Reporting, Metrics & Portfolio Risk Management:

• Develop reporting and metrics in support of:

  • Operational performance including KPIs where applicable (turnaround time, productivity, service level agreement, etc.)

  • Portfolio trends and credit quality metrics including KRIs where applicable (delinquency, loss rates, growth rate, etc.)

  • Translate observations to underwriting and policy framework refinements to mitigate loss potential and maintain expected credit quality

• Identify material data elements to be incorporated into loan analytics to enhance portfolio analysis long term, including data to be pushed to core/data warehouse for such purposes.

• Evaluate semi-annual HELOC portfolio monitoring:

  • Evaluate sufficiency, comprehensiveness of the approach

  • Consider incorporation of other equity products as growth materializes and program matures longer term

  • Determine need to increase frequency of the monitoring exercise

  • Assess readiness to meet anticipated regulatory scrutiny, evolving risk management/assessment

• Partner with Credit Reporting team on stress testing considerations for HELOC portfolio due to materiality and economic factors which impact long term portfolio performance.

• Partner with internal stakeholders to develop objective, behavior and credit event driven risk rating framework for equity loans.

  • Design framework

  • Develop requirement with technology partners

  • Test and implement automated solution

  • Monitor, track & report

Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree required, Master’s degree preferred

• Minimum 15 years of residential mortgage/home equity lending experience

• People management/supervisory experience of 10 years or more

• Excellent interpersonal, organizational and communication (both written and oral) skills

• Able to work autonomously

• Engages with internal and external stakeholders within minimal direction

• Must have strong time management skills with the ability to determine priorities and meet deadlines

From our first day in business, Wintrust has been proud to serve a variety of unique communities and people from all walks of life. To be Chicago’s Bank® and Wisconsin's Bank®, we need to reflect that diversity both in all the communities we serve, the people we employ, the organizations we work with, and our banking and lending practices. Wintrust Financial Corporation, including community banking and financial services subsidiaries, is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expressions, genetic information, marital status, age, disability, or status as a covered veteran or any other characteristic protected by law.