Our Department of the Week is Mortgage and Consumer Underwriting, led by VP Jim Saladin. As Jim explains below, it’s this department’s job to ensure that the bank makes smart, careful decisions about who qualifies for a loan. “After all,” he notes, “no one wants to see their money wasted.” Last week’s Branch of the Week was Ashwaubenon.

Keith Goetter, Melissa Wantuch, Amy Schoen, Gina Bontempo, Jim Saladin, Peggy Winchell, and Jeff Wagner.

Department Personnel
Jim Saladin, Vice President, Credit and Collections Manager
Gina Bontempo, AVP, Credit Analyst
Keith Goetter, AVP, Senior Credit Analyst
Amy Schoen, AVP, Credit Analyst
Jeff Wagner, AVP, Credit Analyst
Melissa Wantuch, Mortgage Underwriter
Peggy Winchell, Mortgage Team Leader

What is your department’s main purpose, and what are the services it provides?
The primary purpose of the Underwriting department is to approve quality assets for the bank. We underwrite consumer, mortgage, and small commercial loans. We select conditions for approvals and review income and collateral evaluations. We must follow all regulatory and compliance requirements, internal policies, and secondary market and investor requirements for sold loans. We are a resource for questions from the RAMs, the branches, and our dealer network of 260 dealers on the consumer side, as well as for the residential loan officers on the mortgage side and BRMs on the commercial side.

What tasks are performed by the various job titles in your department?
We approve and deny credit on a daily basis. We review appraisals and create and review internal evaluations for each real estate secured transaction. We work closely with the credit sales department on the consumer side and the mortgage processing and secondary departments on the mortgage side. We review subordination and modification requests, and perform portfolio management as well as produce reports.

What are some things you’d like other departments or branches to know about what your department does?
We read all of the notes people put in their applications. Notes are the best way for us to start understanding the application and what the applicants are looking to accomplish with their loan request. If there are any unique facets of the application, we like to know about them up front — it helps us in the decision-making process. It is our job to look out for the best interests of the bank, and sometimes that means that the answer to a loan application has to be no. As the money we lend out belongs to the depositors of the bank, we have a duty to them to use it wisely and to invest it in quality assets. After all, no one wants to see their money wasted.

What events or projects or times of the year keep your department especially busy?
January through March is always a busy time for us, as the boat and RV shows are going on. That means extra underwriting hours in the evening and on Saturdays and Sundays. Because the RV/marine business is important to the bank, it is important that we support the dealers during these busy times. Branch promotions always increase the level of activity of branch applications. On the mortgage side, we typically are busy in the spring, when the home purchase market picks up, as well as any time rates are low.

What are some important moments or people in the department’s history?
In 1993, we implemented the COIN application processing system and went away from manual consumer underwriting on blue sheets. This was an important event, in that it allowed us to increase our capacity to process a large volume of applications without increasing staff. Since that time, we migrated to ALSCOM, and then in 2004 to the current APPRO system. The EZ Lender system has been in use by the mortgage department since 2008.

Any personal celebrations or milestones among the people at your department recently?
Our department has celebrated many milestones, as many of us have been with the bank for quite a while. Our longest-tenured person is Keith Goetter, who celebrated 30 years with the bank last year. Jeff Wagner will be celebrating his 30th anniversary later this year. Amy Schoen celebrated 25 years last year. Gina Bontempo is next, with 24 years, followed by me with 23, Peggy Winchell with 13, and Melissa Wantuch with six. We have all had our share of cake!

Is there some music, or a TV show or movie or book or anything that’s notably popular among the people in your department?
The Brewers and Packers are often the topic of conversation. Survivor and The Bachelor are also popular among some of us.

What’s a great work story from your department?
Appraisals can be interesting, as you get a look at people’s housekeeping and how long some of them hold on to possessions (i.e., hoarding). We’ve had so many anniversary celebrations, so we try to remember all of the wonderful people we’ve had the privilege to know and work with. While the numbers are too large to list, we have seen many dedicated and hardworking people come and go over the years.

Any exciting or noteworthy developments on the horizon for your department?
Jeff’s 30th anniversary this year and Gina’s 25th next year. We are a department of dedicated people who have devoted a large part of our working careers to making North Shore Bank one of the strongest banks around. We like to think we have contributed to the success of the bank.