Director, Collections & Fraud Oversight

Address:

33 Dundas Street West

Audit, Risk & Compliance

The Director, Collections and First‑Party Fraud Strategies’ Oversight is a senior leader responsible for shaping portfolio outcomes through expert risk judgment, disciplined oversight, and deep subject‑matter expertise in collections and fraud management across all Retail product lines, including Unsecured Lending and Real Estate Secured Lending (RESL). 

 

Reporting to the Head, Canadian Consumer Credit Risk, this newly established role provides second‑line oversight and strategic direction by leveraging quantitative tools, advanced analytics, and a risk‑based, data‑driven methodology to independently review, challenge, and enhance all Collections and First‑Party Fraud strategies. This includes constructive challenge of key decisioning—policies, segmentation, treatments, and model‑enabled strategies—to ensure they are analytically robust, customer‑centric, and aligned with the bank’s risk appetite and business objectives. 

 

The Director leads the governance, methodologies, and controls that underpin transparent, consistent, and effective credit‑risk management, while monitoring the effectiveness of both first‑ and second‑line action plans to strengthen loss mitigation and customer trust. 

 

In addition, this role champions best practices, fosters operational resilience, ensures compliance with regulatory expectations, and delivers timely insights to senior executives and governance bodies, including the Enterprise Risk Management Committee and the Board.

 

Key Accountabilities

1) Strategic Challenge of Collections Approaches

• Independently review and challenge the design and implementation of collections strategies across all retail products, ensuring tools and processes effectively mitigate risk and prevent losses.
• Provide actionable feedback and recommendations to continuously improve collections approaches; monitor strategy outcomes versus expectations, advocating for real-time adjustments to address underperformance or seize opportunities.
• Review governance and controls reporting for collections, ensuring accuracy and actionable insights for committees and leadership forums.
• Evaluate the integration of collections data and feedback into the broader credit ecosystem to support continuous improvement.
• Challenge assumptions, scenario designs, and predictive elements in second-line collections models.
• Breaks down strategic problems, and analyses data and information to provide insights and recommendations.
• Defines business requirements for analytics & reporting to ensure data insights inform business decision making.
• Designs and produces regular and ad-hoc reports, and dashboards.

2) Independent Review of Fraud Detection & Prevention

• Provide data-driven, independent challenge to First-Party Fraud (FPF) strategies, tools, and controls—balancing loss reduction, customer experience, and alignment with enterprise fraud standards and evolving regulatory and technological landscapes.
• Independently assess Enterprise Fraud Management (EFM) data for early warning signs and address vulnerabilities proactively.
• Oversee and challenge the first-line fraud taxonomy, including tagging criteria and definitions, to ensure accuracy and relevancy.
• Evaluate the identification of emerging fraud vectors and ensure the use of analytically sound, up-to-date tagging and risk identification methods.
• Assess and approve first-party fraud risks in both new and existing products/processes, ensuring mitigation strategies are consistent with the organization’s risk appetite.
• Develops and maintains in-depth knowledge of business and related risk management requirements and legislative / regulatory directives and guidance.
• Consults with stakeholders to improve consistency and transparency of risk measurement, metrics and reporting.

3) Governance, Oversight, and Reporting

• Provide clear, structured challenges in governance forums and senior leadership reviews; ensure alignment with risk appetite, regulatory requirements, and bank policy frameworks.
• Enhance challenge frameworks, documentation standards, and evidence requirements; develop governance reporting and key risk indicators to highlight emerging risks.
• Leads the development and maintenance of the governance system and framework; measures the effectiveness of the risk governance system and framework; recommends changes as required.
• Leads and integrates the monitoring, measurement & reporting on the status of the credit risk governance program to internal & external stakeholders.
• Represents the risk program / governance structure during internal/external regulatory audits and/or examinations; may provide specialized support for other internal and external regulatory requirements.
• Leads the management of governance meetings and maintenance of governing body mandates, oversight and approval guidelines.
• Acts as the prime contact for internal/external stakeholder relationships, which may include regulators; ensures alignment between stakeholders.
• Manages the review and sign-off process for relevant regulatory reporting; coordinates and monitors the review and sign-off of regulatory reporting and attestations.
• Provides advice and guidance to assigned business/group on implementation of the risk framework, including effective challenge.
• Identifies where corrective actions are required and escalates per guidelines; ensures corrective action is taken as necessary.
• Identifies, develops and administers credit risk control framework activities for adherence to all policies, procedures and established processes; documents and reports results of independent risk assessments on an individual and portfolio basis.

4) Continuous Improvement & Ecosystem Integration

• Ensure that insights from collections and fraud inform upstream strategies, including acquisition, portfolio management, forecasting, and credit policy.
• Challenge the integration of insights into enterprise loss forecasting and scenario analysis; identify and support remediation of structural gaps in risk detection and controls.
• Promote simplicity, transparency, and quality in documentation and performance monitoring.
• Assesses and adapts existing operational programs; develops new capabilities to ensure ongoing success.
• Leads the execution of operational programs; assesses and adapts as needed to ensure quality of execution.
• Provides input into the planning and implementation of ongoing operational programs in support of the credit risk framework.
• Leads the design, implementation and management of core business/group processes.
• Recommends measures to improve organizational effectiveness.
• Identifies emerging issues and trends to inform decision-making; anticipates trends and responds by implementing appropriate changes.

5) Leadership & Culture

• Fosters a culture aligned to BMO purpose, values and strategy and role models BMO values and behaviors in all that they do.
• Ensures alignment between values and behavior that fosters diversity and inclusion.
• Regularly connects work to BMO's purpose, sets inspirational goals, defines clear expected outcomes, and ensures clear accountability for follow through.
• Builds interdependent teams that collaborate across functional and operating groups to create the highest value for all stakeholders.
• Attracts, retains, and enables the career development of top talent.
• Improves team performance, recognizes and rewards performance, coaches employees, supports their development, and manages poor performance.
• Acts as a trusted advisor to senior leaders for making business decisions and implementing strategic initiatives; develops an expert understanding of business/group challenges.
• Networks with industry contacts to gather competitive insights and best practices; may consult to or serve on various committees and task forces.
• Influences and negotiates to achieve business objectives; recommends business priorities, advises on resource requirements and develops roadmap for strategic execution; manages resources and leads the execution of strategic initiatives to deliver on business and financial goals.
• Builds effective relationships with internal/external stakeholders; fosters strong internal and external networks and works with and across multiple teams to achieve business objectives.
• Operates at a group/enterprise-wide level and serves as a senior specialist resource across BMO; applies expertise and thinks creatively to address unique or ambiguous situations and to find solutions to multiple, interdependent, complex problems; communicates abstract concepts in simple terms.
• Broader work or accountabilities may be assigned as needed.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree in Business, Economics, or a quantitative discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in Financial Services, with a focus on Collections, First-Party Fraud Prevention, Risk Strategy, Lending, or related domains.
• Proven expertise in credit risk management, portfolio oversight, and regulatory compliance.
• Advanced skills in analytical assessment of collections and/or fraud strategies.
• Strong knowledge of Canadian regulatory frameworks for collections and fraud.
• Expertise in advanced analytics, modeling, and decision science applications.
• Outstanding quantitative, analytical, and critical-thinking abilities.
• Commitment to evidence-based reasoning and the ability to craft persuasive, well-supported narratives for senior stakeholders.
• Ability to blend quantitative analysis with sound business judgment to address complex or ambiguous issues.
• Demonstrated success working cross-functionally across risk, product, modeling, and operations teams.
• Strong industry networking and relationship-building capabilities.
• Dedication to ethical conduct, transparency, and continuous professional development.
• Proven leadership and management skills in dynamic environments.
• Agility in managing ambiguity and change.
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to deliver results under tight deadlines with strong attention to detail.

 

$110,500.00 - $192,500.00

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/ca/en.

BMO is committed to an inclusive, equitable and accessible workplace. By learning from each other’s differences, we gain strength through our people and our perspectives. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. To request accommodation, please contact your recruiter.

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.