Director, Commercial Credit, CMHC

Join a Challenger

Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing. We are big believers in innovating the banking experience because we believe Canadians deserve better options, and we challenge ourselves and our teams to creatively transform what’s possible in banking. Our team is made up of inquisitive and agile minds that find smarter ways of doing things. If you’re not afraid of taking on big challenges and redefining the future, you belong with us. You’ll get to work with people who will encourage you to reach new heights. We like to keep things fun, ask questions and learn together.

We are a big (and growing) family. Overall we serve more than 370,000 people across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than 5 million members. Together we have over $100 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Our EQ Bank platform ( eqbank.ca ) has been named the top Schedule I Bank in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks 2023, 2022, and 2021 lists.

The Work

The Director, Commercial Credit is responsible for all credit underwriting and portfolio management aspects of the Commercial division’s Multi-family Insured lending group (CMHC). The incumbent will lead a team comprised of Managers, underwriters, and analysts in the prudent underwriting of $8 billion annually of CMHC-insured multi-family loans located in markets throughout Canada. In addition, the incumbent will be responsible for, and provide oversight of, a $20 billion portfolio of insured multi-family product.

Key responsibilities include establishing and overseeing procedures to ensure that credit risk is thoroughly assessed and within the Bank’s risk appetite. The Director will manage, supervise, and mentor the CMHC Credit team to ensure individual responsibilities are completed in accordance with Company policies, procedures, and priorities. Along with the CMHC Credit Managers, the Director will manage credit flow, approve, or recommend insured mortgage facilities according to assigned delegation of authority and ensure that the portfolio is being proactively managed and operating within prescribed thresholds.

In addition, the Director will champion the Bank’s goal of delivering a superior customer experience by proactively engaging senior management to address issues as they arise while ensuring that team members complete underwriting assignments quickly and efficiently.

• Provide support, guidance and ongoing training to department managers and staff, identifying their specific needs and devising plans to ensure all staff are adequately trained.
• Ensure compliance with the company’s established policies and procedures.
• Adjudicate CMHC-insured credit facilities (i.e. new deals, mortgage renewals, assumptions, and annual reviews) ensuring the request falls within the Company’s lending and regulatory requirements and is in compliance with the Company’s delegated authority limits.
• Develop, implement, and maintain production and service metrics to measure and support best-in-class turnaround times on completion of underwriting tasks with a goal of exceeding customer service, accountability, and transparency targets.
• Continuously identify and implement improvements to processes to increase department efficiencies, improve customer service levels, and ensure ongoing compliance with risk and regulatory requirements.
• Communicate and co-operate with internal and external parties providing optimum service to maintain long standing relationships.
• Oversee ongoing, timely completion of regular reporting for senior levels of management, including but not limited to: Commercial Dashboard, exception to policy tracking, KPI/KRI reporting, and securitization reporting.
• Provide overflow support to CFG Underwriting by way of taking on new business underwriting assignments.
• Assist with department projects or company initiatives, where needed.

• Post-secondary education (diploma/degree) in business or finance, MBA/CFA preferred.
• Have a minimum of 10 years multi family-insured/commercial mortgage experience with a minimum of 3-5 years of management experience.
• Highly developed verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate to Senior Management, Partners, and Borrowers in a clear, concise, and professional manner.
• Proven ability to inspire a team to work toward a set of goals and objectives.
• Advanced technical knowledge of commercial lending, financial statement analysis and factors affecting the Canadian commercial lending environment.
• Possess a detailed understanding of macro factors affecting the CMHC-insured multi-family lending environment with an ability to understand, anticipate and react accordingly, to changing factors.
• Detail-oriented individual who possesses a high level of integrity.
• Demonstrated service excellence within their field.
• In-depth knowledge of AML/ATF regulations and Corporate/Legal documentation for commercial real estate in multiple jurisdictions across Canada.
• Proven ability to thrive in a constantly changing environment and to perform well in a high volume, high intensity environment.
• Effective analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Ability to handle multiple competing priorities.
• Proficient in MS Office.

• The position requires the incumbent to be a self-starter with the ability to prioritize workflow and allocate resources effectively. The incumbent shall possess strong cognitive skills and professional judgement to properly assess and mitigate risk. The commercial real estate lending industry is subject to the forces of various external factors. The incumbent should be able to understand these factors, anticipate the impact to the business/industry of changes in these factors, and adjust the underwriting approach, accordingly. The individual should also have the ability to coach/motivate employees to consistently develop and achieve aggressive departmental targets.
• The incumbent will be working in a fast-paced environment where accuracy and speed of execution are critical to our goal of providing a superior customer experience. Accordingly, the incumbent will need to ensure that stated timelines are being adhered to while regularly reviewing deal pipelines to ensure that high priority deliverables are being addressed. The volume of CMHC transactions combined with tight turnaround times often results in the need to make decisions with limited and/or incomplete information.
• The CMHC team is generally comprised of young professionals. As such, the incumbent will be heavily relied upon to ensure that appropriate training programs are in place and to coach the team in dealing with ambiguity and understanding when it is appropriate/required to escalate matters to senior management.
• The incumbent is required to follow corporate policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements in order to properly review files and rationalize the recommendations or decisions made. In addition to exercising professional judgement, strong problem-solving skills with respect to AML/ATF risk and related documentation are required as the incumbent will be responsible for preparing and recommending risk mitigation actions to the Business Unit Compliance Officer and/or the Compliance Department.

#LI-Hybrid

What we offer [For full-time permanent roles]

Competitive discretionary bonus

Market leading RRSP match program

Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits

Employee Share Purchase Plan

Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one

Generous vacation policy, personal days and even a moving day

Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues

Annual professional development allowance and a comprehensive Career Development program

A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience

The incumbent will be working hybrid and in office time will be spent working from Equitable Bank’s additional office space located at 351 King Street East, Toronto, ON.

Equitable Bank is deeply committed to inclusion. Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well.

We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position.

We can’t wait to get to know you