The highly empowered portfolio manager

An empowered portfolio manager sets the tone as a buck-stops-here manager with ˈownershipˈ responsibility not only by managing the bottom line but by working with other senior managers to set expectations and track results across all of the following key areas:

  1. Return on assets  (ROA)
  2. Product pricing and rewards programs
  3. Underwriting and credit limit guidelines
  4. Ongoing credit line management
  5. Promotional activities and promotion response rates
  6. Stimulating member usage and increasing ˈshare of walletˈ
  7. Fraud and credit loss management activity and results
  8. Collection methods and results

Meet Zain Hashmi of ORNL: His Journey to Empowered Portfolio Manager

Zain Hashmi, Manager of the Special Loans Department at ORNL Federal Credit Union of Knoxville, TN has been a client of Advisors Plus Marketing Services since Spring 2011. After a decade at ORNL, Zain had just been promoted to his new position and was eager to spread his own enthusiasm about ORNL through new account acquisition programs.

When he first started, Zain had taken over his portfolio duties with a particularly strong background in underwriting but very little experience in marketing. As he and Advisors Plus developed a track record of success with structured campaigns however, Zain and his team felt ready by early 2013 to discuss his vision for launching a custom marketing campaign.

And Zain didn’t envision just any custom campaign, as you will quickly see. With unswerving support, not only from ORNL senior management but from every operational area from branches to contact center, the Special Loans Department developed and executed a custom new account acquisition campaign that has significantly contributed to ORNL’s astonishing 43.07% 12-month credit card loan growth!

No detail, from the size of the logo on the direct mail pieces to the specially-scrubbed database of underwriting criteria to the contact center representatives who were personally auditioned for their friendly phone voices, was too small to escape Zain’s attention. As he put it, “I tried to run the campaign that I wanted to receive.”

Members were told in advance that they would be receiving the direct mail offer and special FAQ phone lines and online access were created. Response rates were scrupulously tracked, because as Zain points out “What does not get measured does not get performed efficiently.”

New accounts began to activate immediately and thanks to an ongoing assist from branch marketing, have been building steadily ever since. Zain’s most recent promotion, for example, yielded 464 new accounts.

It is probably not literally true that Zain Hashmi knows every ORNL member or credit card holder by name, but it is true that his portfolio knowledge, his ambitious growth goals, and the teamwork and support he has received from all areas of ORNL have worked together to create a paradigm for Empowered Portfolio Management that can inspire us all.

Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson

Stephen M. Thompson is Director of Credit Consulting for Advisors Plus, where he works with credit unions to conduct top-to-bottom analyses of credit card portfolios. Prior to joining Advisors Plus, ... Web: www.AdvisorsPlus.com Details