Lawrence Landset

Acting in a consultative role, provided an external review of policies, procedures, processes, and controls for various clients.

• Reviewed and tested processes, policies, and procedures for a major U.S. bank for compliance with Federal Making Home Affordable (MHA) mortgage program.
• Performed on-site audits of FDIC Loss Share acquiring institutions, reviewing practices, policies, procedures and individual files for consistency and compliance with Loss Share agreements and best practices
• Focused on single family property default management processes, evaluating the effectiveness of various loss mitigation strategic alternatives including loan modification, foreclosure, short sales, and liquidation of owed properties.
• Acting as lead Associate in the development of Material Loss Reports for the FDIC consistent with the statutory requirements of FDI ACT section 38(K) and the Interagency Statement of Understanding on MLRs.
• Developed audit program, scope and methodology for specific MLR performance audits.
• Determined the causes of failure and assessed the effectiveness of regulatory oversight during the MLR performance audit for several failed institutions.
• Wrote and edited the MLR reports.

Contract consultant to leading global service consulting firm that provides, independent and authoritative studies, strategic advice, and objective expert testimony to financial institutions.  Evaluate underwriting processes and procedures for leading financial companies.  Review credit facilities for compliance with internal policies and regulatory best practice.  Assess effectiveness of established underwriting and behavioral scorecards.  Provide strategic advice regarding credit risk management, monitoring, measurement, and control.

Reported directly to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, providing credit risk mitigation through the independent review of business units, processes, policies, and procedures. Identified, and presented issues to Senior Management and business units taking an effective, balanced approach, and worked with management to develop reasonable and achievable action plans for the implementation of agreed-upon changes.

• Developed quarterly portfolio analysis report reviewing a number of performance and business metrics, providing commentary on the quality of the receivable, business processes, and trends in key portfolio indicators.This report became a central tool in the corporate strategic planning process.
• Produced independent monthly Allowance Backtest used to assess the sufficiency of the allowance and adequacy of the process.  Report was central in the FDIC and other regulatory agencies review of the allowance process in the annual safety and soundness examinations.
• Implemented a consistent process for the review of account management and marketing programs.  Improved communication, reduced turnaround time, and standardized program performance and risk analysis.
• In conjunction with the Senior Credit Committee, provided internal risk management consulting for various projects and processes including account management and underwriting practices and the analysis of credit scorecard performance and development.

Managed direct lending department for a major U.S. regional bank with more than 500 branches and assets in excess of $38 billion.  Directed teams responsible for due diligence processes in the purchase of mortgage portfolios.

• Develop and implement credit policies and procedures and corporate underwriting guidelines, maintain Corporate Direct Lending Policies and Procedures manual.
• Reengineered the underwriting function, reducing turnaround time by almost thirty percent and increasing processing capacity by more than ten percent without the need for additional resources.
• Established processing standards and developed and implemented underwriter review process to assure compliance with published guidelines, reducing error rates by 25% and providing analysis of process override and exception performance.
• Managed project team for implementation of new automated loan originations system, evaluating system functionality and vendor qualifications.
• Developed and implemented Customer Advocacy Group designed to improve customer service and increase closing ratios by providing personal branch support and direct customer contact.

Oversaw credit policies and procedures, credit scoring, analysis, strategy development and implementation for portfolio of consumer loans and lines with total balances in excess of $20 billion.

• Coordinated risk evaluation and policy reviews with respect to aligning product and procedural credit risk exposure across geographic areas providing a for more consistent decisions within individual product  segments.Developed, tested, and implemented automated collection strategies to provide for the most cost-effective use of bank resources and provided ongoing evaluation of strategy effectiveness.
• Developed, tested, and implemented automated collection calling strategies to provide for most cost-effective use of bank resources.  Provided ongoing review of strategy effectiveness.
• Established credit criteria for categorizing applicants by risk levels for direct automobile loan risk-based pricing program.
• Implemented review process for credit solicitation and management programs to provide a more efficient and consistent process in establishing program criteria such as credit bureau prescreening, credit scores, and credit line assignment..
• Coordinated communication between risk management and marketing group concerning credit bureau prescreen criteria, credit score requirements, and credit line assignment with regard to credit solicitation and account management programs.

Responsible for development and overall administration of company wide credit risk management program to control financial exposure for central consolidation of six retail credit card portfolios with approximately 5 million accounts and $3.5 billion in annual credit sales.

• Directed implementation and ongoing operations of co-branded Visa credit card including the development of policies and procedures, the establishment of processing and risk parameters and, ongoing product  and system management.
• Managed development, implementation, and ongoing administration of credit underwriting and behavioral scorecards.
• Developed system for measuring ultimate profitability of accounts that provided ability to evaluate success of underwriting, promotion, and ongoing account management programs both individually and collectively.  This profitability measurement was successfully incorporated into the collection strategy process.
• Developed a Champion/Challenger system allowing for testing of new portfolio management strategies, random populations and reporting the results for comparison with current strategies. Based on internal systems, provided more flexibility in analysis and was developed at a savings of approximately $100,000 over externally developed alternatives.
• Established specifications for corporate risk management reporting including portfolio analysis report providing vintage performance data by more than 20 variables.
• Negotiated pricing structures with credit bureaus that resulted in an annual credit bureau expense saving of approximately 30%.

Managed staff of more than 100 with budget in excess of $4M that processed nearly 3M credit applications annually.

• Coordinated installation of a new automated credit application processing system, application fraud and duplicate detection system, and third party interface for on-line verification of application data.  These resulted in improving data entry productivity by more than 50%, reducing average talk time on an each credit telephone call by more than 20%, and reducing input error rate by more than 35%.

Administered various aspects of the proprietary credit operations in a $700 million per year retail chain including New Accounts, Credit Promotion, Credit Authorization, Customer Service, Fraud Prevention, Returned Checks, Card Production, and Statement Mailing.