An established investment management firm specializing in mortgage and consumer credit investments, including whole loans, asset-backed securities, mortgage servicing rights, and other credit-related assets is looking for a Counterparty Oversight Specialist, responsible for identifying areas of risk and exercising prudent diligence and oversight over both new and Legacy counterparties.
Responsibilities:
- Complete due diligence engagements on time according to timelines set by Portfolio Management.
- Develop and manage due diligence budgets, ensuring transactions are closed within budget.
- Ensure transaction agreements reflect risks identified during the due diligence process.
- Provide transparency to counterparties throughout the due diligence process with clear, comprehensive, and timely requests.
- Execute due diligence transactions independently with minimal oversight.
- Maintain and update policies and procedures for counterparty diligence and oversight, including a weekly risk dashboard.
- Implement safeguards to account for bespoke counterparty risk.
- Ensure timely and regular execution of counterparty diligence and oversight plans.
- Deliver summary due diligence reports to Portfolio Management, summarizing results and risks within prescribed timelines.
- Conduct annual audits of servicer and flow seller counterparties' operations.
- Review financials of each servicer and flow seller counterparty annually.
- Develop action plans for any counterparty with material findings in their audits.
New Counterparty Reviews:
- Conduct thorough reviews of new potential counterparties, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and red flags.
- Coordinate comprehensive due diligence reviews covering controls, regulatory risk, compliance, and credit.
- Synthesize information to make clear recommendations to Portfolio Management, including risk grading.
- Handle ad-hoc requests related to underwriting, regulatory changes, and servicing best practices.
Counterparty Risk, Due Diligence, and Oversight:
- Understand and proactively mitigate risks posed by investment transactions in collaboration with Portfolio Management.
- Drive the due diligence process for various counterparties, appropriate to the level of risk.
- Monitor risks posed by different counterparties.
- Identify optimal service providers for transaction execution and manage RFPs as needed.
- Stay updated on regulatory changes and industry shifts affecting counterparties.
- Implement tools for counterparty-specific surveillance of regulatory actions and reputational issues.
Qualifications:
- Advanced understanding of credit, financial analysis, and performance metrics.
- Comprehensive understanding of different types of counterparty risk.
- Strong time management and independent planning skills.
- Effective management of third parties to achieve due diligence goals.
- Ability to organize and synthesize large quantities of information.
- Good presentation skills and ability to build rapport with internal and external parties.
- Experience in managing personnel, including setting expectations, coaching, hiring, and performance improvement.
- 15+ years of experience in relevant fields.