Vice President Asset Recovery

Description

• Summary
• The Vice President of Asset Recovery provides enterprise leadership for the credit union’s asset recovery strategy, portfolio risk management, loss mitigation, and bad debt recovery programs. Reporting to the CFO, the Vice President establishes the department’s strategic direction, operating standards, performance expectations, and risk controls; advises senior management on delinquency, charge-offs, recoveries, and emerging portfolio risks; and ensures the function protects credit union assets while complying with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures.

Essential Functions

1. Establish and lead the enterprise asset recovery strategy, including multiyear priorities, annual goals, performance measures, staffing plans, and department initiatives aligned with the credit union’s financial objectives and risk appetite. Represent Asset Recovery in credit union leadership meetings and enterprise projects.

2. Direct the analysis of collection performance, delinquency trends, loss exposure, recovery results, and portfolio risk. Translate findings into forecasts, strategic recommendations, resource priorities, and adjustments to collection and loss-mitigation strategies.

3. Build effective partnerships with senior management and leaders across Lending, Finance, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Operations, and Member Service to coordinate loss-mitigation priorities, resolve systemic issues, and reduce credit union losses.

4. Build and lead a high-performing Asset Recovery team by establishing an effective organizational structure, clarifying decision rights and accountability, overseeing workforce planning and succession, setting performance expectations, and ensuring leaders provide appropriate coaching, development, and workflow management.

5. Establish decision frameworks, approval authorities, escalation protocols, and quality standards for complex collection matters. Provide executive direction on significant exceptions and ensure management decisions are consistent, well documented, and aligned with policy, risk tolerance, and member-service standards.

6. Maintain executive oversight of the Asset Recovery compliance and control environment. Ensure policies, procedures, practices, monitoring, training, and corrective actions remain aligned with Sierra Central Credit Union requirements and applicable federal and state laws and regulations.

7. Own the governance of Asset Recovery policies, procedures, standards, and delegated authorities, ensuring they are current, consistently applied, appropriately approved, and responsive to regulatory, portfolio, operational, and strategic changes.

8. Provide executive oversight and final escalation support for the most complex, sensitive, or high-risk delinquent accounts and member situations. Ensure significant matters receive appropriate legal, compliance, financial, and member-impact review.

9. Sponsor continuous improvement across Asset Recovery by evaluating operating models, technology, analytics, member-contact strategies, and vendor solutions. Prioritize and lead initiatives that improve recoveries, reduce losses and operating costs, strengthen controls, and enhance the member experience.

10. Establish approval criteria and provide executive recommendations for legal actions, repossessions, foreclosures, settlements, and charge-offs, balancing expected recovery, cost, compliance obligations, reputational considerations, and member impact.

11. Oversee relationships with legal counsel, insurance providers, collection agencies, repossession firms, and other third-party service providers. Establish performance, cost, compliance, service, and risk expectations; monitor results; and take corrective action to protect credit union assets.

12. Prepare monthly, or as needed, reports as required by senior management. Ensure all reports prepared by the department are accurate and timely.

13. Attend ongoing education opportunities and industry events to keep abreast of developments in the field. Coach and develop all Asset Recovery department staff.

14. Establish the Asset Recovery performance-management and quality-assurance framework, including key performance indicators, service standards, control measures, management reviews, and corrective-action expectations. Hold department leadership accountable for sustained quality, efficiency, compliance, and results.

15. Additional duties as assigned

Requirements

Required Skills and Abilities

1. Executive communication and influence: able to present complex portfolio, financial, operational, legal, and regulatory matters clearly to senior management and other stakeholders; build alignment across functions; navigate sensitive member and business matters with sound judgment; and represent the credit union with credibility, diplomacy, courtesy, and tact.

2. Problem solving skills: able to effectively research, investigate, and offer solutions to issues that are more complex and difficult in nature.

3. Must be flexible and self-motivated. Willingness and ability to stay late as required to complete task or project at hand.

4. Ability to work well under pressure in a fast-paced environment with multiple projects, meeting sometimes competing deadlines.

5. Ability to deliver a high level of service to members and internal departments.

6. Must possess excellent negotiation skills.

7. Demonstrated ability to interpret complex portfolio and operational data, evaluate financial and non-financial risk, challenge assumptions, forecast potential outcomes, and recommend sound, cost-effective collection and loss-mitigation strategies consistent with the credit union’s objectives and risk tolerance.

8. Must possess detailed working knowledge of all collection related functions including but not limited to repossessions, commercial loans, real estate foreclosures, bankruptcies, probate, credit insurance claims, small claims actions, bad debt recovery collections and attorney litigation.

9. Excellent organization, prioritization, planning, and follow-up skills.

Education and Experience

1. Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or a related field required; an advanced degree or relevant professional certification is preferred. A combination of education and directly relevant executive experience may be considered.

2. Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in asset recovery, collections, credit risk, loss mitigation, or a related financial-services discipline, including significant responsibility for complex portfolios and demonstrated knowledge of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Bank Secrecy Act regulations, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and other applicable federal and state laws and regulations.

3. Advanced experience in all areas of loss mitigation including collections, charge offs, modifications, foreclosures, bankruptcy, repossessions, as well as managing outsourced servicing providers.

4. Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible leadership experience, including experience leading managers or a comparably complex function. Demonstrated success in strategy execution, organizational development, succession planning, performance management, and coaching leaders and direct reports.

5. Demonstrated proficiency with portfolio analytics, financial and operational reporting, collections technology, and executive presentation tools. Able to define reporting requirements, evaluate system capabilities, interpret dashboards and forecasts, and use technology to strengthen decisions, controls, productivity, and business results.

6. Experience defining and governing collections-system capabilities, workflows, queue structures, decision rules, reporting, controls, and integrations. Able to translate business strategy and regulatory requirements into technology priorities and oversee successful implementation and adoption.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment

The physical demands