Business Banking Customer Relationship Liaison

Overview:

Part of a team of professionals assigned to portfolio and risk management, service and sales support activities associated with the Business Banking Sales Division. Act as a cross-functional liaison between the customer and both Business & Retail Banking representatives, loan administrators, and other relevant Bank departments to enhance communication and grow opportunities in business development activities. Support branch partnerships as the Business Banking subject matter expert, to enhance their knowledge base and minimize operational risk exposure. Customer Relationship Liaisons cover business banking sales teams where there is no branch coverage. They also support prospecting only sales teams.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Serves as an integral partner in supporting the Business Banking Relationship Managers with managing the portfolio of customer relationships by deepening connections using proactive touchpoints, identifying referral opportunities, and providing a supportive environment for customers to explore bank provided products and services.
• Leads the communication efforts among credit underwriting, external attorneys, internal legal, document preparation departments, and others as may be needed to facilitate timely loan closing and proactively resolve complex issues.
• Takes ownership of complex account servicing and error resolution issues, including those escalated by other Bankers.
• Manages the clearance of delinquent documents and other exceptions with appropriate areas.
• Analyzes financial information in support of the client credit request (e.g., cash flow, collateral schedules, covenant sensitivity calculations, financial models, and guarantor statement analysis).
• Provide an optimal experience to existing and prospective business customers, ensuring creation of a consultative relationship and the provision of seamless customer service.
• Lead regular one-on-one meetings with Relationship Manager(s) to prioritize and strategize ongoing portfolio management activities and new loan requests, while facilitating cross-business line cluster meetings.
• Play a key role in the client facing team by overseeing transaction requests, documentation collection, fraud support, error resolution, and managing escalations.
• Conduct thorough research on client and bank issues, proposing comprehensive solutions and evaluating potential trade-offs while identifying risks and presenting effective mitigants.
• Monitor and manage the portfolio’s outstanding assets, such as, but not limited to maturing loans, exception pricing, annual reviews, and covenant compliance, ensuring proactive oversight.
• Maintain frequent contact with customers throughout the customer lifecycle, ensuring seamless onboarding, analysis of service needs, and consultation on service enhancements.
• Opens deposit accounts and services them on behalf of the Relationship Manager.
• Act as a first line of defense with the relationship team to help identify and mitigates risks.
• Adhere to applicable compliance/operational risk controls in accordance with Company or regulatory standards and policies.
• Promote an environment that supports diversity and reflects the M&T Bank brand.
• Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators as applicable.
• Complete other related duties as assigned.
• Cultivate a diverse and inclusive workplace culture that reflects the values and brand of M&T Bank, while actively promoting these principles among team members.
• Maintain operational excellence to mitigate risk and ensure all compliance requirements are met.

Scope of Responsibilities:

The incumbent must possess the ability to initiate independent action, using skill and judgment in identifying and resolving problems and anticipating customer needs. Ability to take on any additional activities or projects. Ability to work with moderate job supervision with emergent demonstration of a leadership role within the relevant markets. This allows the business relationship managers to focus on generating sales and not the administrative responsibilities.

Managerial/Supervisory Responsibilities:

N/A

Education and Experience Required:

Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 2 years of customer service experience or in lieu of a degree a combined minimum of 6 years higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 4 years customer service experience

Knowledge of the bank’s core word processing and spreadsheet applications, and loan, deposit and customer contact systems.

Knowledge of the bank’s products, operations, policies, and procedures.

Solid familiarity with banking regulations, financial statements and commercial loan documentation required.

Solid verbal and written communication skills

Strong customer service skills with the willingness to utilize those skills in participating in the department’s sales and customer retention activities.

Ability to work as a team member, and to work effectively under pressure with tact and diplomacy.

Strong interpersonal and presentation skills required.

Highly motivated, detail-oriented self-starter.

Education and Experience Preferred:

Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 4 years of customer service experience or in lieu of a degree a combined minimum of 8 years higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 4 years customer service experience

Thorough knowledge of bank related systems and software used to open and service deposit and lending accounts (ie: PACE, APPRO, ACAPS, nCino, OTP, Hogan, ERM, AKM, OnDemand, CTA, etc.)

Demonstrated Sales ability

Ideal candidate would have previous Relationship Liaison and Branch Manager experience

Location