Senior Credit Officer, Director - US Insurance

#bmoinsurance

Reporting directly to the Counterparty Credit Executive, this highly visible leadership role in the second line of defence is responsible for the independent credit risk assessment, adjudication, and portfolio management of a portfolio of U.S. Insurance clients, with a primary focus on Life Insurance and Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance companies. The successful candidate will partner closely with Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, and Capital Markets teams to evaluate and approve complex lending, trading, and counterparty credit exposures while ensuring alignment with the Bank's risk appetite, regulatory expectations, and credit policies.

This role requires deep expertise in the U.S. insurance sector, including insurance company financial analysis, capital structures, statutory reporting, investment portfolios, liquidity management, reserving practices, and regulatory frameworks. The role also requires strong knowledge of lending products, derivatives, and trading-related credit exposures.

Credit Risk Adjudication & Portfolio Management

• Provide independent credit assessment and adjudication of lending, trading, and counterparty credit exposures involving U.S. Life Insurance and P&C Insurance companies.
• Approve transactions within delegated authority and provide recommendations for transactions requiring escalation.
• Assess borrower and counterparty creditworthiness through detailed analysis of financial performance, capital adequacy, liquidity, asset quality, profitability, and risk profile.
• Evaluate and approve a broad range of products, including corporate lending facilities, derivatives, securities financing transactions, repo, and other capital markets products.
• Monitor portfolio quality and emerging risks to ensure exposures remain within the Bank's risk appetite and established credit policies.
• Recommend transaction structures, covenants, collateral arrangements, and credit risk mitigants to appropriately manage risk.
  
  
  

Insurance Sector Expertise

• Serve as the subject matter expert for the U.S. Insurance sector, including Life, Annuity, Reinsurance, and Property & Casualty Insurance companies.
• Analyze statutory and GAAP financial statements, RBC capital metrics, reserving adequacy, investment portfolio composition, liquidity, and enterprise risk management frameworks.
• Maintain a current understanding of industry trends, regulatory developments, market conditions, and competitive dynamics affecting insurance companies.
• Identify emerging risks and opportunities across the insurance portfolio and communicate implications to senior leadership.
  
  
  

Strategic Partnership & Stakeholder Management

• Partner with Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, Trading, and Capital Markets teams to support client activities while maintaining strong independent risk oversight.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior business leaders on complex credit and risk matters.
• Influence transaction structures and risk outcomes through effective negotiation and stakeholder engagement.
• Present credit recommendations and portfolio views to senior management and credit committees.
• Build strong relationships across Risk, Front Office, Legal, Compliance, Finance, and Regulatory functions.
  
  
  

Leadership & Governance

• Provide credit coaching, mentorship, and technical guidance to junior credit professionals and broader stakeholder groups.
• Support strategic initiatives, process enhancements, credit policy development, and risk management projects.
• Lead or participate in regulatory reviews, audits, and governance activities as required.
• Contribute to the development of portfolio reporting, risk analytics, and management information systems.
  

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in credit risk, counterparty credit risk, insurance credit, or financial institutions.
• Significant coverage experience across U.S. Life Insurance and/or Property & Casualty Insurance sectors.
• Strong lending, credit underwriting, and counterparty credit risk expertise, including capital markets products.
• Experience presenting complex credit recommendations to senior executives and credit committees.
• Proven ability to manage large, complex portfolios and credit exposures.
• Deep knowledge of the U.S. insurance industry, including Life, Annuities, Reinsurance, and P&C sectors.
• Strong understanding of insurance financial analysis, capital adequacy, reserving practices, and regulatory frameworks.
• Advanced credit structuring, portfolio management, and risk mitigation skills.
• Expertise in lending products, derivatives, and capital markets-related credit exposures.
• Strong executive presence with exceptional stakeholder management and influencing abilities.
• Superior analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate complex credit concepts clearly to diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated leadership, coaching, and talent development experience.
• Thrives in fast-paced environments and effectively manages ambiguity.
• CFA, FRM, CPA, MBA, or similar professional designation.
• Experience within a major bank, rating agency, insurance company, or global financial institution.
• Experience with regulatory reviews, stress testing, or portfolio analytics.
  
  
  

Reporting to the Head, Reinsurance and Strategic Initiatives, the AVP, Reinsurance Solutions is accountable for developing and executing the reinsurance strategy, managing all Reinsurance relations and Reinsurance related initiatives, which includes leading all Reinsurance RFPs (Request for Proposals), negotiating pricing and parameters with reinsurers to help drive profitable growth for BMOLA and execution of reinsurance treaties.

In addition, the incumbent will drive other initiatives including monitoring and analyzing our mortality slippage. The incumbent will also have accountability for the Reinsurance Administration team.

Core Responsibilities:

• Drive strategic reinsurance initiatives to drive profitable outcomes. Manage the design, development, implementation, reporting and change management of the initiatives. Review, analyze and present conclusions, recommendations and findings to Senior Management.
• Assess mortality slippage on our Accelerated Underwriting program on a regular basis, including regular monitoring. Collaborate with underwriters regularly to monitor our Accelerated Underwriting program. Understand our predictive models and assess its impacts to mortality slippage. Provide valuable feedback and guidance on any new predictive models.
• Manage end to end process of all reinsurance RFPs, including proposing reinsurance structure and framework while providing supporting analysis, communicating effectively with all reinsurers, ensuring appropriate understanding of BMOLA’s business and providing subject matter expertise on BMOLA products, business rules, experience data, distribution, illustrations and other information pertinent to a reinsurance transaction.
• Establish strong relationships with Reinsurers and be the primary contact for all Pricing and Treaty queries.
• Conduct reinsurance negotiations to support overall business operations and to drive profitable business growth including execution of treaties.
• Support all Risk Committee and Board reporting relating to Reinsurance.
• Manage all reinsurance treaty and amendment negotiations with support from internal stakeholders.
• Leveraging data and analytics to deepen knowledge and optimize business decisions.
• Partner with Finance, Actuarial, Risk teams to identify and implement reinsurance initiatives to reduce capital and to increase earnings.
• Manage the Reinsurance Administration team to ensure accurate treaty implementation, reporting and compliance with contractual obligations.
• Establish governance and controls supporting reinsurance activities and related financial reporting and ensure compliance with regulatory and internal requirements while ensuring continuous improvement in processes.
• Lead issue resolution and escalation management involving reinsurance partners and internal stakeholders.
  

Qualifications:

• University degree in actuarial science.
• FSA/FCIA designation with applied actuarial skills in insurance and reinsurance.
• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in an individual life pricing or reinsurance role.
• Previous experience in pricing individual life products is preferred.
• In-depth knowledge of insurance products and channels, and regulatory requirements.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Solid organizational and project management skills.
• Self-starter and demonstrated initiative, autonomy and accountability.
• In-depth knowledge of Reinsurance and practical knowledge of IFRS17.
  
  
  

Salary:

$85,500.00 - $185,000.00

Pay Type:

Salaried

The above represents BMO Financial Group’s pay range and type.

Salaries will vary based on factors such as location, skills, experience, education, and qualifications for the role, and may include a commission structure. Salaries for part-time roles will be pro-rated based on number of hours regularly worked. For commission roles, the salary listed above represents BMO Financial Group’s expected target for the first year in this position.

BMO Financial Group’s total compensation package will vary based on the pay type of the position and may include performance-based incentives, discretionary bonuses, as well as other perks and rewards. BMO also offers health insurance, tuition reimbursement, accident and life insurance, and retirement savings plans. To view more details of our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/global/en/Total-Rewards

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in-depth training and coaching, to manager support and network-building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.

To find out more visit us at https://jobs.bmo.com/us/en

BMO is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. We evaluate applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual ster

About Us

At BMO we are driven by a shared Purpose: Boldly Grow the Good in business and life. It calls on us to create lasting, positive change for our customers, our communities and our people. By working together, innovating and pushing boundaries, we transform lives and businesses, and power economic growth around the world.

As a member of the BMO team you are valued, respected and heard, and you have more ways to grow and make an impact. We strive to help you make an impact from day one – for yourself and our customers. We’ll support you with the tools and resources you need to reach new milestones, as you help our customers reach theirs. From in-depth training and coaching, to manager support and network-building opportunities, we’ll help you gain valuable experience, and broaden your skillset.

To find out more visit us at https://jobs.bmo.com/us/en

BMO is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. We evaluate applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or any other legally protected characteristics. We also consider applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

BMO is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to BMOCareers.Support@bmo.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

Note to Recruiters: BMO does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to BMO, directly or indirectly, will be considered BMO property. BMO will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. A recruiting agency must first have a valid, written and fully executed agency agreement contract for service to submit resumes.