Vice President, Commercial Rating & Underwriting

Job Description

American Express is a global financial services company that provides consumers and businesses with exceptional access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.

Working With Us

There’s a difference between having a job and making a difference.

American Express has been making a difference in people’s lives for over 160 years, backing them in moments big and small, granting access, tools, and resources to take on their biggest challenges and reap the greatest rewards.

We’ve also made a difference in the lives of our people, providing a culture of learning and collaboration, and helping them with what they need to succeed and thrive. We have their backs as they grow their skills, conquer new challenges, or even take time to spend with their family or community. And when they’re ready to take on a new career path, we’re right there with them, giving them the guidance and momentum into the best future they envision.

Because we believe that the best way to back our customers is to back our people.

The powerful backing of American Express. Don’t make a difference without it. Don’t live life without it.

Overview of The Department

Commercial Rating and Underwriting (CRU) sits within the Credit and Fraud Risk Management (CFR) division and supports the institutional credit risk management function within American Express. The CRU team plays the critical role of assessing and managing the risk of large institutional exposures across all business units within American Express, and in all regions globally. Credit exposures are primarily generated through corporate and small business charge card programs, and via merchant relationships where non-delivery risk exists. This team focuses on Amex’s largest credit exposures, whereas smaller commercial and consumer credit risks are generally measured by machine learnings models. CRU is led from Salt Lake City with regional teams in New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, Bangalore and Gurgaon.

Job Responsibilities

CRU has three Vice Presidents responsible for overseeing directors whose teams’ rate and underwrite credit exposures in their assigned region, industry, and business line. Fundamental analysis incorporates a thorough review of business, financial, industry and country risk coupled with support from internal and external rating model outputs. Assessment includes understanding of the need for credit extension, and profitability of the relationship and program structures. CRU VPs interact with various constituents across the company including front office sales, business unit risk partners, and credit administration to perform their critical role.

Specifically, this open position will lead four CRU director-led teams in Salt Lake City and one director led team in New York, with portfolio management responsibilities across large corporate and small to medium sized enterprises, spanning across North and South America. Responsibilities include ensuring accurate rating, prudent underwriting, and effective monitoring of American Express’s commercial portfolio in the Americas. They also include oversight of CRU operational efficiency, policy and procedure documentation, enhancement initiatives, and training across the team.

Desired Skills

• Expertise as a credit and underwriting decision maker dealing with commercial exposures ranging from small business or middle-market to large, multinational institutions
• Thorough understanding of fundamental financial analysis, including the ability to review financial statements to determine the ability of the obligor to honor its credit obligations
• Comfort with GAAP/IFRS accounting standards, corporate valuation, and forecasting techniques
• Knowledge of how probability of default and loss given default determine economic capital
• Experience in determining appropriate credit capacity, structuring of facilities, and risk mitigation techniques
• Familiarity with quantitative credit models, knowledge of how to interpret the outputs, and when deviation from the model has appropriate defense
• Comfort with public agency ratings and supporting analysis
• Understanding of current macroeconomic trends and how to provide recommendations to improve the probability of default estimation based on the business cycle
• Experience preparing company-specific and industry-wide credit memorandums
• Excellent judgment in making sound rating and underwriting decisions to maximize profitability and mitigate risk
• Familiarity with banking regulations, particularly those imposed by the Federal Reserve and OCC, Amex’s primary regulators
• Track record of collaborating and building relationships across organization
• Ability to lead large scale, time sensitive, enterprise-wide projects through to successful completion
• Proven ability to influence others to achieve complex objectives against tight deadlines
• Experience managing others, with the proven ability to lead a diverse team of professionals, understand their individual needs, and inspire them to achieve a common goal
• Executive presence with excellent communication skills, the ability to listen, and provide input to help senior leadership make informed decisions

• Minimum 10 years of experience rating and / or underwriting at a leading financial institution or rating agency
• Bachelor’s degree from a top tier university and a degree (or substantial coursework) in finance, accounting, economics, or statistics
• Graduate degree with a finance or business emphasis, or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is preferred
• Proven team leadership experience is a must

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law.