Lending Department Manager

Reports to: VP of Lending

Responsible for management of the Lending Department. Assignments in this role include directing and coordinating all consumer and mortgage loan activities, ensuring compliance with credit union lending policy and guidelines, assisting with the development of lending policies and managing lending activity to meet credit union goals and objectives. Accountable for department’s loan portfolio quality, growth and compliance. Actively looks for ways to improve the overall process and ensures service delivery, both internally and externally is professional, efficient and follows the credit union’s core values and consistent with overall company management policies. Provides support to all lending team

personnel.

1. Develop and maintain lending policies, procedures, and guidelines across all loan products.
2. Supports the strategic direction set forth for consumer and mortgage lending aligned with organizational goals and objectives.
3. Oversee daily operations of centralized lending, mortgage origination, Home Equity origination, processing, underwriting, closing and post-closing functions.
4. Ensure staffing levels, workflow design and organizational structure support service-level goals and compliance requirements.
5. Lead, mentor, and develop a cross-functional lending team with diverse roles (underwriters, MLOs, processors, title clerks, etc.).
6. Establish and maintain sound underwriting standards for consumer, HELOC and mortgage portfolios. Helps manage risk and achieve desired results by ensuring development and execution of strong underwriting skills and effective management of lending procedures.
7. Review and enhance decisioning processes within the LOS, including automated decisioning and exception management.
8. Guide underwriters on complex loan decisions and ensure consistency in credit evaluation.
9. Monitor portfolio performance indicators such as delinquency, charge-offs, early payment defaults and risk concentrations.
10. Maintains knowledge of current fraud trends and identifies fraud attempts to minimize losses through these channels. Alert/notify appropriate credit union personnel when fraud attempts occur.
11. Oversee loan quality control and post-closing audit processes.
12. Ensure full compliance with federal and state lending regulations including ECOA, FCRA, HMDA, TILA/RESPA, SAFE Act, and Fair Lending standards.
13. Oversee preparation, accuracy, and timeliness of HMDA reporting for mortgage lending.
14. Coordinate and prepare Fair Lending reviews, self-testing, and internal audits; implement corrective action plans where needed.
15. Assist and comply with internal and external audit processes as required.
16. Maintain proper documentation, recordkeeping, and reporting for all loan types (consumer, mortgage, HELOC).
17. Ensure title processes meet state requirements for perfecting liens, releasing titles, tracking insurance, repossession, and handling total loss claims.
18. Work collaboratively with the Business Systems Dept. to optimize LOS configuration, workflows, and automation to support efficiency and compliance.
19. Maintain and distribute weekly rate updates for organization
20. Participate in Pricing Committee meetings as directed.
21. Manager vendor relationships related to credit bureaus, LOS providers, mortgage software and ancillary systems.
22. Reduce operational errors through process improvements, training and system enhancements. Ensure teams are effectively using systems.
23. Maintain accurate rate sheets, product guidelines, and pricing across consumer and mortgage lending.
24. Work collaboratively with Senior Lending Officer to support and oversee all mortgage and Home Equity lending processes.
25. Analyze lending trends, application volume, approval/decline rates, underwriting turnaround times, and team performance.
26. Monitor overall portfolio: delinquency, loss rates, collateral values, utilization, and product mix.
27. Resolve escalated member concerns related to lending decisions, documentation, or processing delays.
28. Provide ongoing training to staff on underwriting guidelines, lending systems, compliance, product knowledge; cross-train team members to support multi-functional roles.
29. Support and coaching of team members with documented coaching.
30. Conduct performance review and create development plans for lending staff.
31. Partner with Strategy, Finance, Compliance, Collections, Marketing and IT as needed/required to support organizational needs.
32. Lead cross-functional initiatives for lending enhancements, new products or system upgrades.

1. Act as subject matter expert for lending and organizational projects.
2. Comply with all federal, state, and organizational policies, procedures, and processes, including (but not limited to) the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
3. Any additional tasks and duties assigned.

1. Supervise and maintain a highly motivated, well-trained staff to support delivering exceptional service to both internal and external members.
2. Develop employees to their highest potential by identifying areas for improvement, coaching, training, mentoring and correcting the employees’ performance. Regularly meet with employees to review performance, give and receive feedback, and hold employees accountable for their performance, and behavior, ensuring all align with credit union goals and core values.
3. Develop and maintain effective relationships with key stakeholders to support the goals of the department and organization.
4. Maintaining knowledge base of regulations and lending guidelines.
5. Make appropriate recommendations to support continued growth.
6. Ensure all lending activity is within established polices, guidelines and regulations.
7. Possess effective knowledge of the credit union’s products and services; completes all assigned training.

1. Associate or bachelor’s degree in business administration, Finance, Accounting or related field
2. Five to ten years of experience in lending, underwriting, mortgage operations, and financial compliance
3. Ability to accept and apply feedback; coachable.
4. NMLS # or the ability to be licensed through the NMLS Registry in compliance with the S.A.F.E. Act procedures including FHA, VA and conventional lending.
5. Willingness and natural desire to learn, succeed and build a successful loan portfolio.
6. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
7. Advance experience in lending, underwriting, and portfolio management.
8. Demonstrated management or leadership experience in a financial institution.
9. Strong attention to detail.
10. Self-motivated
11. Ability to analyze and evaluate complex income calculations and tax returns
12. Must be organized and detail oriented