Mike Otto Email & Phone Number

Buffalo, Ny, Us

Buffalo, Ny, Us

I was tasked with creating and managing the Retail Credit Review department, which was responsible for providing oversight on the credit risk management structure for $50B in outstanding balances for Residential Mortgage, Consumer Lending (home equity lines of credit, installment loans, credit cards), Business Banking, and default servicing.The following provide some of the key responsibilities and accomplishments:• Led a team of 7 credit review officers, team leads, and managers• Subject matter expert on the life cycle of lending, including sales, underwriting, asset management, and risk.• Developed and executed a risk-based annual test/review plan that was completed on time every year.• Trained and mentored staff that identified gaps in underwriting policies and procedures that created unknown or unwanted credit and operational risk.• Wrote the functional specifications and participated in Agile project that developed a database that centralized the review process, allowed for communication between departments to occur within the database, and enhanced data driven insights.• Issued findings to business units that minimized credit risk by reducing unknown exceptions to policy, identifying processes that caused undue credit risk, and improving policies that created operational efficiencies.• Consulted on enhancement/development of products and finding remediation.• Successfully directed a project that remediated a corporate-wide finding that was issued by federal regulators.• Prepared comprehensive reports shared with executives, risk committees, and federal and state regulators. The reports summarized the product, testing results, and credit risk ratings.• Department success was validated by positive results from formal reviews conducted by Internal Audit and the Federal Reserve Bank of NY over an 8-year period.

Buffalo/Niagara, New York Area

I was asked by senior management to work closely with the default servicing team (collection, lost mitigation, bankruptcy, foreclosure and claims departments) to ensure that M&T maintained its Tier 1 rating with FHA. M&T was FHA's 6th largest servicer at the time. In addition, I was tasked with ensuring that M&T was in compliance with FHA’s Single Family Loan Sale (SFLS) program.The following provide some of the key responsibilities and accomplishments for default servicing:• Regularly met with FHA’s senior management team for default to provide status updates on our default servicing and to receive updates from them on M&T’s rating.• Worked closely with the management of the default servicing teams to maintain an awareness of how their programs were impacting M&T’s rating and to manage cross-functional projects• M&T’s Tier 1 servicing rating was maintained.The following provide some of the key responsibilities and accomplishments for SFLS program:• Regularly met with FHA’s senior management team for the SFLS program to review results of previous sales and prepare for future sales.• Subject matter expert on the contract signed to participate in the program.• Led the development and management of the SFLS program that enabled M&T to service release 4,000 FHA loans in a year vs. 200 in each of the previous two-years, generating $4M in revenue. Collaborated with 30 departments and vendors to ensure full compliance with the requirements of the contract.• Wrote the functional specifications and worked with a developer to create an Access database that automated the tracking of the SFLS program. This database was an integral part in ensuring that M&T remained in compliance with the terms of the contract.• Prepared rebuttals for repurchase requests made by the servicers that purchased the loans through the SFLS program.

Led a department that sold over $200M in bank-owned assets over a 3-year period. I was asked by senior management to re-engineer the department so that it could operate more efficiently. Directed the department responsible for collaborating with vendors to repossess and sell consumer (cars, boats, and recreational vehicles) and commercial collateral for the highest possible price to help offset losses. Also managed a team that traveled throughout the country to conduct face-to-face outreach to assist customers with loss mitigation requests. The strategic focus included sales enablement, marketing strategies, operational efficiencies, compliance with state and federal regulations, and staff development. The following provide some of the key responsibilities and accomplishments:• Managed annual sales of $70M, an annual budget of $4M, and staff of up to 35 repossession and remarketing specialists, team leaders, and managers.• Ensured compliance with state and federal regulations and represented the department in internal, state, and federal audits.• Participated in implementation of a new system for consumer repossession and remarketing and led projects for enhancements post implementation.• Wrote functional specifications and worked with a developer to create an Access database that automated the tracking process for repossession and remarketing processes for commercial products.• Re-engineered department processes, resulting in a 15% reduction in staff size.• Discovered operational losses of nearly $1M due to an inadequate insurance claim filing process. Recovered 80% of losses through vendor negotiation. Implemented controls to prevent future errors.• Reduced expenses and sales time by developing a sales process to liquidate marine vessels.

Led a team that sold nearly $100M in bank owned real estate over a 2.5-year period. I was tapped by executive and senior management to re-engineer the sales process for M&T’s Real Estate Owned department (which liquidated residential mortgages the bank owned due to customer default) during what would become known as the Great Recession in the late 2000’s. The strategic focus included reduction in time to sell homes, lowering inventory, sales enablement, marketing strategies, operational efficiencies, compliance with state and federal regulations, achieving goals, and staff development.The following provide some of the key responsibilities and accomplishments:• Managed annual sales of $45M, annual budget of $1.5M, and 12 specialists and team leaders.• Achieved executive management’s annual goal for reducing inventory in just 5 months.• Improved operational processes, which reduced selling times by 30%, resulting in $1M in annual savings.• Trained and mentored staff to creatively design and implement marketing strategies that maximized the sales price.• Developed and administered a performance-based incentive program.• Ensured compliance with state and federal regulations and represented the department in internal, state, and federal audits.• Developed www.mandtreo.com, a dynamic website used from 2008 to 2023 to advertised properties to the general public. Successfully promoted website to over 1,000 realtors at industry conferences, driving substantial interest and registration from potential property buyers.• After conducting a champion challenge, implemented a process that increased Homeowner’s Insurance claim proceeds by 450%.

Led a department that generated $400M in sales and $4.5M in net income over an 8-year period. Oversaw sales of specialized products for customers that did not qualify for M&T’s conforming mortgage products. The strategic focus included sales enablement, marketing strategies, product development, achieving goals, and staff development.• Managed sales as high as $92M annually, an annual budget of $2M, and a matrix managed staff of up to 21 sales people (face-to-face and telephone) and assistant managers.• Increased sales production by 255% and net profitability by 372% over a 5-year time frame.• Identified gaps to existing product offerings and collaborated in developing marketing strategies used to launch new products and services designed to meet customer needs.• Trained staff on all product offerings and presented features and benefits to relevant parties.• Coordinated and conducted annual sales conference, which focused on department results vs. goals, marketing and sales activities, and compliance related issues.• Administered the commission program.• Collaborated closely with other sales departments to attract and retain customers and drive business growth by building relationships with internal and external referral sources.• Conducted financial analysis to ensure profitability was acceptable and sustainable• Subject matter expert on underwriting guidelines for all products.• Forecasted and attained staff planning, along with annual sales and expense budgets.• Ensured compliance with state and federal regulations and represented the department in internal, state, and federal audits.