Chief Risk Officer

The Chief Risk Officer (‘CRO’) of CardWorks will lead the Risk & Regulatory Organizational Area, comprising Enterprise Risk Management, Third Party Vendor Management, Compliance, Credit Risk Management, Credit Operations, and Internal Audit. It is a leadership role that is responsible for the monitoring and management of a broad array of risks facing the Company, involving many regulations, rules and requirements across multiple entities.

The successful incumbent will maintain oversight and senior-level accountability for defining the organization’s Risk Framework to analyze and mitigate risks in line with the Company’s risk appetite, and also direct the handling of all risks and regulatory obligations connected with our activity and the broader organization’s 3-5 Year Strategic Plan.

The Risk & Regulatory Organizational Area is a team of approximately 160 professionals across the US.

Specific responsibilities of the Chief Risk Officer will include, but not be limited to the following:

Board Level Responsibilities

• Lead representative from management in the Compliance & the Committee of the CardWorks board.
• Support the Merrick Chief Compliance Officer as the lead representative from management in the Compliance Committee of the Merrick Bank board.
• Administratively support the Head of Internal Audit, who reports directly to the Audit Committees of both the CardWorks and Merrick boards.
• Work with both boards to review and manage the firm’s overall Risk Appetite.

Oversight of Enterprise Risk Management

• Oversee the Enterprise Risk Management (“ERM”) function across CardWorks, including a team of approximately 20 professionals, providing both risk management and third-party vendor management functions.
• Provide leadership to the ERM team in managing Issues, Control Gaps, Risk Assessments, Third Party Vendor approvals and reviews.
• Manage the organization’s Risk Governance Framework and overall enterprise risk management (ERM) profile/appetites in an effort to control potential exposures across our organization in a way that matches our desired risk profile.
• Drive compliance with our risk limits, reporting and monitoring exceptions while independently reviewing regulatory adherence, along with material market, credit, model, and liquidity risks.
• Analyze results of risk management assessments with the Company’s leadership teams, the Boards, the Risk/Compliance Committee, and the Audit Committee, as appropriate.
• Continually oversees the review and understanding of material market, credit, model, operational and liquidity risks.
• Monitor the progress of all risk mitigation activities, advising on projects and strategic approach, while communicating the risk profile of the operations.

Oversight of Compliance

• Oversee the Compliance function across CardWorks, including a team of approximately 50 professionals, managing both bank and non-bank aspects of compliance.
• Ensure full adherence to all of the organization’s internal control policies and procedures, preparing for and facilitating regulatory examinations.
• Maintain clarity along with full understanding and awareness of all laws and regulations to which the organization is subject for all aspects of the business, developing and monitoring actions plans to remediate regulatory findings.
• Collaborate closely with the CFO and the SOX organization to ensure compliance with all aspects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that apply to the Company; assess risks that may impact SOX compliance; and provide support for and influence governance of the SOX program
• Drive resolution and immediate solutions to resolve all gaps in an efficient manner.
• Annually review and maintain accountability for updating (as necessary) account & product disclosures, including supporting changes to products and services to ensure that disclosures remain fully compliant with all applicable banking laws and regulations.
• Review, maintain, and update applicable Board policies, ensuring adherence, which can include:

o Privacy policies

o BSA/OFAC/CIP/AML programs and SAR reporting

o Track & successfully manage regulatory compliance changes.

o Perform risk assessments and audits of key compliance functions.

o Records retention policies and procedures

Oversight of Credit Risk Management

• Oversee the Credit Risk Management function at Merrick Bank, including a team of approximately 30 professionals, focused on overall second line credit risk functions.
• Steer the organization’s credit risk management approach to properly control the account origination and portfolio level credit risk associated with the bank’s loan and deposit portfolios.
• Manage reporting infrastructure (human & system based) that controls and monitors portfolio behavior with deep analysis, predictive modeling, and more robust management reporting.
• Oversight of the management of our CECL modeling for loan loss reserves, working in conjunction with the CFO of CardWorks and Merrick Bank.
• Understand and influence credit dynamics to ensure the bank’s multi-year strategy addresses transaction, account, and portfolio level credit risks.
• Assist in the management of relationships with the major credit bureaus.
• Play a leading role in the overall management of fraud risk across the organization (as it applies to credit), including application and ongoing fraud, working closely with the Lending, Operations, and Data, Technology & Digital Organizational Areas.

Consultative Partnership with Internal Audit

• Internal Audit (IA) reports directly to the Audit Committees of the CardWorks and Merrick Bank boards of directors; these Committees approve the Internal Audit plan, and budget; receive reports from the head of Internal Audit on the results of internal audit activities or other matters that the head of Internal Audit deems necessary; approve the appointment, removal, evaluation, and compensation of the head of Internal Audit, and determine whether there are scope or budgetary limitations that impede the Internal Audit function in carrying out its work.
• The CRO will partner with the Head of IA - consulting, counseling, and collaborating as necessary in their roles as the 2nd & 3rd lines of defense. This partnership will ensure smooth workflow execution, effective reporting and governance, and will represent the creation of an integrated, accountability-based, and supportive “tone at the top” with respect to Risk, Regulatory and Controls across the organization.

Effectively represent the organization and its subsidiaries to stakeholders

• Serve as a key executive in interfacing with regulators, providing the necessary level of gravitas to maintain credibility with the external agencies.
• Demonstrate leadership in guiding the organization to fulfill its regulatory obligations in a constructive and compliant manner.
• Maintain a Voice of Authority throughout the organization and with senior executives as an effective advisor, and knowledgeable subject matter expert on risk and all Risk & Regulatory functions.

Provide a Workforce Planning approach to grow and lead a high performing team

• Support and empower the high-performing Risk & Regulatory teams to execute their annual plans
• Thrive in a dynamic and high-pressure environment, with honed problem-solving capability, while embedding a deep sense of accountability across the senior leadership team.
• Demonstrate the passion and compassion that fosters a CRITICAL Values-based culture of accountability, communication, inclusion, and engagement.
• Support and reinforce a culture of continuous learning and performance.
• Provide an environment that continues to drive deliverables in a complex business by enhancing individual / team performance with strategic coaching, transparent communications, aligned goals and robust talent engagement.
• Partner with Company leadership in overall organizational structure optimization.

The ideal candidate will possess the following experiential profile:

• 15+ years of progressive risk roles with demonstrated success in risk and regulatory work at a thriving institution with a reputation for strong competitive growth and efficient risk management. Banking experience a significant plus.
• 10+ years, preferably as CRO within a banking context, leading executives who make analytically driven decisions along with the achievement of clear revenue targets.
• Sited ability to strategically align priorities based on Board and Regulator directive, along with direct collaboration with a parent entity.
• Experience in managing a consumer credit card and lending businesses, with a strong preference for the subprime credit segment.
• Exposure to many or all segments of the lending lifecycle (acquisitions, underwriting, product development, customer management, and credit risk).
• Utilization of data warehouse facilities and an understanding of the strategy and architecture required to support organization-wide, data-driven initiatives.
• Deep expertise in credit performance and dynamics, grounded in through-the-economic-cycle experience and insights.
• Significant ability in utilizing the monitoring and reporting capabilities/rhythms that enable efficient tracking and management of lending portfolios.
• Successful development of strong and productive relationships with banking regulators.
• Capacity to develop a vision and then instituting a data-driven, analytically rigorous framework and infrastructure to support marketing and credit decisions.
• Bachelor’s degree, preferred, in a financial or business leadership discipline - Master’s degree, a plus.