Collections & Credit Solutions Lead

ASB Bank; Auckland; On-site; NZD 200,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Flexible leave

Wellness initiatives

Customisable benefits

Parental leave

Job summary

ASB Bank in Auckland seeks a senior enterprise leader to own end-to-end Collections, Hardship and Recoveries. You will set strategy, lead performance and transformation across collections, hardship, recoveries and customer assistance to deliver fair customer outcomes and prudent risk management.

You will partner with Credit Risk, Product, Legal and Compliance to strengthen controls, manage regulatory obligations and drive continuous improvement across the end-to-end customer journey.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of consumer lending, hardship, collections, recoveries and debt management.
• Experience developing and running in a regulated banking environment with regulator engagement.

Responsibilities

• Set and execute the strategy for Collections, Hardship and Recoveries across ASB.
• Lead a large operational function through senior leaders, building capability and succession.
• Ensure customer treatment strategies are effective for customers in financial difficulty and recovery pathways.
• Partner with Credit Risk, Product, Legal, Compliance and Operational Risk to align on risk and customer outcomes.

Job description

This is a senior enterprise leadership role accountable for ASB’s end-to-end Collections, Hardship and Recoveries function. The role exists to ensure customers experiencing financial difficulty receive fair, timely and sustainable support, while protecting ASB’s credit, conduct, regulatory and operational risk position.

Reporting to the ASB Chief Operating Officer, the Collections & Credit Solutions Lead will set strategy, lead performance, strengthen controls and deliver transformation across collections, hardship, recoveries and customer assistance.

Lead ASB’s response for customers experiencing financial difficulty across all lending products, ensuring the operating model, policies, processes, controls and partner relationships deliver fair customer outcomes, prudent credit risk management and strong regulatory compliance.

The role is accountable for early and late-stage collections, hardship assistance, recoveries, secured and unsecured debt activity, third-party debt arrangements, offshore workforce arrangements and continuous improvement across the end-to-end customer journey.

Customer financial difficulty: Ensure customers in hardship or financial stress receive fair, consistent, timely and sustainable support, with clear pathways to rehabilitation where possible across the entire end-to-end value chain.

Credit risk and portfolio performance: Manage arrears, hardship, recoveries and debt-management strategies in close partnership with Credit Risk, balancing customer care, risk appetite, impairment outcomes and sustainable commercial performance.

Regulatory and conduct leadership: Maintain deep understanding of the legislative, regulatory and conduct obligations applying to consumer lending, hardship, collections, debt recovery and third-party activity, and ensure these are embedded into operational practice.

Operational risk and control environment: Own first-line risk management across the function, including controls, issues management, remediation, operational resilience, supplier oversight and transparent governance.

Product and enterprise engagement: Work closely with Product, Distribution, Credit Risk, Legal, Compliance, Technology and Operational Risk teams to ensure product settings, process design and operational execution support good customer and risk outcomes.

Transformation and delivery: Lead strategic uplift, remediation, process improvement and technology change that improves customer experience, operational efficiency, regulatory compliance and risk reduction.

The role will:

• Set and execute the strategy for Collections, Hardship and Recoveries across ASB.
• Lead a large operational function through senior leaders, building capability, accountability and strong succession.
• Ensure customer treatment strategies are effective for customers experiencing financial difficulty, including early intervention, hardship support, rehabilitation and recovery pathways.
• Partner deeply with Credit Risk on portfolio settings, risk appetite, collections strategies, provisioning impacts and emerging credit stress.
• Engage strongly with Product teams to ensure lending products, policies and customer journeys support fair and sustainable outcomes.
• Own the first-line operational risk profile, including controls, incident management, remediation, assurance actions and supplier governance.
• Maintain trusted relationships with Compliance, Legal, Operational Risk and regulators where required, ensuring obligations are understood and delivered.
• Deliver transformation and continuous improvement that strengthens customer outcomes, risk controls, productivity and operational resilience.
• Engage and partner with the CBA Group and align on best practices.

The successful candidate will be a senior leader with substantial collections, hardship, recoveries, credit risk or banking operations experience, and a proven ability to operate in a highly regulated, customer-sensitive environment.

They will bring:

• Deep knowledge of consumer lending, financial difficulty, hardship, collections, recoveries and debt management.
• Demonstrated experience developing and running effective practices in a regulated banking environment, including strong engagement with regulators or regulatory expectations.
• Strong working knowledge of relevant credit, conduct, consumer protection, privacy, collections and hardship obligations.
• Credibility with Credit Risk, Product, Legal, Compliance, Operational Risk and senior business stakeholders.
• Proven first-line risk leadership, including control design, issue remediation, supplier oversight, incident management and operational resilience.
• Experience leading large operational teams and third-party arrangements in complex, high-volume customer environments.
• A track record of delivering transformation, process improvement and technology uplift that improves customer, risk and operational outcomes.
• Sound judgement, resilience and the ability to make clear decisions where customer, commercial, conduct and regulatory considerations intersect.

He aha tā mātou | What can we offer

Get the work-life equation right.

We know life is full of priorities, from soccer practice to side hobbies. We're here to help you find balance, with a flexible and supportive working environment.

What's important to you is important to us.

We support your wellbeing in meaningful ways, including comprehensive health insurance, wellness initiatives, parental and flexible leave, and customisable benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Bring your whole self to work every day.

Whether you're into scrap booking, spontaneous karaoke sessions, or just hanging out with the family, ASB is working hard to create a culture where everyone feels safe, included and part of our shared purpose of helping Kiwi get one step ahead.

The whole "one step ahead" thing applies to you, too.

With mentorship, flexible learning pathways, and opportunities to deepen your expertise, ASB is a place where you can take on exciting challenges and step forward to reach your goals, both in and out of office.

To serve a diverse community, we need a diverse organisation. We encourage applicants from allbackgrounds who bring unique perspectives and thinking styles that add to the culture andperformance of our team.