Our Department of the Week is Commercial & Consumer Loan Administration, run by AVP Barb Wisneski, who shared the ins and outs of what goes on behind the scenes to give our clients the resources to achieve their goals. Last week’s Branch of the Week was Martin Luther King Drive.

Front row: Jeannie Schwenkner and Priscilla Hartling. Second row: Glenda Jackson, Yvette Burdette, Jessica Kohn, and Heidi Becker. Back row: Missy Hayburn, Barb Wisneski, Georgia Phillips, and Mary Fleischman.

Department Personnel
Barb Wisneski, AVP/Commercial & Consumer Closing Manager
Heidi Becker, Commercial Loan Specialist
Yvette Burdette, Consumer Loan Specialist
Mary Fleischman, Commercial Loan Specialist
Priscilla Hartling, Senior Commercial Loan Specialist
Missy Hayburn, Senior Consumer Loan Specialist
Glenda Jackson, Consumer Loan Specialist
Jessica Kohn, Senior Consumer Loan Specialist
Georgia Phillips, Consumer Loan Specialist
Jeannie Schwenkner, Consumer Loan Specialist

What is your department’s main purpose, and what are the services it provides?
The main purpose in both Commercial & Consumer Loan Administration is to get the loan closed! Our responsibilities are to provide the best customer service we can to both our internal customers (lenders and branches) and our external customers, while ensuring that all file compliance and regulatory requirements are met.

What tasks are performed by the various job titles in your department?
We are involved starting with the loan application, running various background checks and credit reports for our commercial credit department and consumer underwriters, all the way through to the loan closing. Along the way to closing, we order appraisals, inspections, title commitments and credit reports, and flood searches, making sure all lending regulations are followed. Finally, we prepare all the necessary closing documents.

The consumer team also enters all indirect applications received into the web application so that the underwriting can occur. The commercial team will work with attorneys involved in the loans and will attend loan closings to assist our commercial lenders as needed.

What are some things you’d like other departments or branches to know about what your department does?
The commercial team works with 18 commercial lenders and business relationship managers. The consumer team works with all 47 branches, with generally two or three people at each branch. We all have individual lenders or branches assigned to us, but we work as a team to help each other as needed. There are numerous regulatory steps in the loan process to go from loan application to loan closing, and our jobs are to make sure all needed items are completed, and to see the loan through to closing. The documentation itself is just a small piece of the puzzle.

Once the loan has closed, post-closing questions are handled by our loan servicing departments.

What events or projects or times of the year keep your department especially busy?
Springtime has been busy, with indirect lending dealer shows and consumer promos. Commercial real estate loans have been busy, especially the days after loan committee meetings. Month end is always a time of increased loan volume in all areas.

What are some important moments or people in the department’s history?
Late 2012 and early 2013, when I started managing both teams and we were able to convert both teams to the same loan documentation software, Laser Pro. This lets each team assist each other with some software questions, as both the consumer and commercial loans have a similar software screen setup. We have been able to eliminate a lot of manual forms and make the documentation process more efficient. Also, when the acquisitions of Maritime Savings and Bank of Kenosha occurred, it took a team effort to handle the significant uptick in volume for loan renewals, modifications, etc.

Any personal celebrations or milestones among the people at your department recently?
We have team members who have celebrated significant work anniversaries in the last few years, with Mary Fleischman having a 25th, Jeannie Schwenkner a 20th, and Missy Hayburn a 10th anniversary. Yvette Burdette will be celebrating a 10th this year, and Glenda Jackson a 10th next year. In fact, all of us have years of service that range from me, Barb, with almost six years, to Priscilla Hartling with six and a half years, to Jessica Kohn and Georgia Phillips with almost seven years, to Heidi Becker with eight.

Is there some music, or a TV show or movie or book or anything, that’s notably popular among the people in your department?
We are Packers, Brewers, Hank the dog, and Seroogy’s Homemade Chocolates fans. We have our own talented singers (Glenda, Georgia, and Jeannie), who sing for birthdays and other team occasions! And once a week in our morning huddle-up meetings, we pick fun questions out of a tin bucket, and then everyone answers and we learn things about each other.

What’s a nice work story from your department?
We like to support each other both personally and professionally. In the last few months, as a team exercise, we worked with Pat Ingelse to make tie blankets to donate to the cancer treatment center where she was treated. Funny note on that is, we are competitive, so we timed ourselves making blankets. The fastest team time was about seven minutes start to finish.

We also came together as a team to put together a little Christmas tree and handmade ornaments and other holiday items to brighten up Jeannie’s holiday during her cancer treatment.

The last vestiges of winter, as seen from the fifth-floor East conference room.

Any exciting or noteworthy developments on the horizon for your department?
On a fun note, we are anxiously awaiting spring and we have been running a contest to guess the date when the last snow will be visible from our fifth-floor East conference room. The winner will get a fun prize, and as of today we are almost there. On a business note, we look forward to increasing loan volume with future growth in loan officers and branches. We love new loans!