Commercial Loan Assistant

About the role

Bankwell is a commercial bank with more than $3 billion in assets that serves the banking needs of businesses and individuals. The Commercial Loan Administrator is a key member of the Lending team, providing Life of Loan administration of the Commercial Loan portfolios including but not limited to C&I, CRE, Specialized Lending, Small Business, and Workout. This role ensures adherence to policy and regulation, delivers excellence in customer service, and acts as the connection between the Lending Teams and the Back Office Operation teams. The position involves exercising sound judgment in resolving loan administration issues and recommending solutions to support effective portfolio management and regulatory compliance.

Responsibilities

• Provide excellent customer service, handling requests for information, resolving questions or issues, advances, paydowns, and transfers.
• Maintain the highest level of confidentiality with customer information.
• Accurately balance and process advances, payments, disbursements, fees, and expenses for loan closings.
• Initiate wire transfers, deposit debits/credits, and internal GL transactions.
• Maintain the bank’s fiduciary responsibility in the safekeeping of legal documents, including tracking, ensuring receipt, and secure delivery to Loan Operations for filing.
• Review and clear loan exceptions and tickler items with members of the Lending team and/or the customer, determining appropriate resolution and escalating issues when necessary.
• Review less complex legal documents for accuracy, completeness, and adherence to the Loan Submission prior to loan closings, identifying discrepancies and recommending corrective action.
• Prepare in-house documents for smaller non-complex loans and coordinate closings with the Lending Team.
• Assist Senior Commercial Loan Administrators (Sr. CLA’s) with administering the commercial construction loan portfolio, including preparation of construction loan advances, ordering site inspections, reviewing borrower documentation, and advancing funds.
• Assist Sr. CLA’s with the Administrative Agent role for operational aspects, including advances (including construction loans), payments, rate changes, fee distribution, manually creating and issuing Agent notices, responding to inquiries, and resolving differences.
• Coordinate bids, order appraisals, and assist with other third-party reports as needed.
• Ensure adherence to Flood Regulations, including ordering Standard Flood Hazard Determinations, obtaining customer signatures on the Notice of Special Flood Hazards, and verifying flood insurance prior to closing/disbursement.
• Ensure adherence to Beneficial Ownership Regulations, including customer completion of required forms and related CIP activities.
• Ensure accuracy of coding, balancing, and preparation of input forms, checklists, spreadsheets, and other items required for submission of the closing package to Loan Operations.
• Review and validate information for completeness and identify issues requiring resolution when reviewing work completed by other CLA’s/Sr. CLA’s.
• Record mortgages, modifications, and UCC-1 statements for all non-attorney closings.
• Review, obtain approvals, and submit invoices to accounting for timely payment.
• Determine CRA and HMDA reportable loans and complete/review related input forms and packages for Compliance.
• Assist in the coordination and review of monthly board reports if requested.
• Participate in special projects, audits, and other administrative tasks as necessary.
• Work with Sr. CLA’s to identify situations that may negatively impact the Bank’s Commercial loan portfolio risk profile, analyze issues, and recommend solutions and process improvements to mitigate risk.
• Create, organize, and maintain all credit files.
• Archive or properly destroy paid loan files not held by Loan Operations (both paper and electronic) as necessary.
• Identify and recommend process improvement opportunities to enhance efficiencies.
• Remain current on all pertinent lending and financial institution-related laws and regulations, serving as a resource to team members on regulatory and loan administration requirements.

Requirements

• Minimum 3 years of Banking/Finance/Cashier experience in a similar role.
• Loan documentation prep, review, and interpretation experience preferred.
• Experience in SBA administration, commercial real estate administration, and/or construction administration is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred but not required.

Skills

• Self-starter with the ability to work independently, including remotely if necessary.
• Excellent customer service skills, attentiveness, and information retention.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and make independent decisions regarding customer transactions, operational issues, and risk concerns, while recognizing when escalation is appropriate.
• Proficient in Microsoft Software products and Loan Systems (Fiserv preferred).
• Ability and willingness to contribute positively as part of a team.
• Strong attention to detail and highly organized.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Thrives in a high-pressure environment and can work with tight deadlines.
• Performs assigned tasks accurately and on a timely basis.
• Ability to recommend process improvements in the department to enhance efficiency.
• Adheres to all applicable policies and procedures.