Stuart is available for hire
Hire StuartStuart Biggar
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Dublin, Ireland
Toptal member since February 27, 2023
Bio
Stuart is an experienced Loan IQ professional who worked both on the client and vendor side. He possesses a deep knowledge of the syndicated loan market and Loan IQ. As a vendor, he worked on Loan IQ implementation projects at client sites. He also worked in Loan IQ product management with Agile and Waterfall methods. Stuart is currently working remotely for a US bank based in London in their loan agency team, onboarding new deals and amendments into Loan IQ.
Project Highlights
Creation of the Fusion LenderComm product
Took the product from initial idea through to proof of concept and production-ready release working in a small team of six people.
Expertise
- Agile
- Business Analysis
- Commercial Lending
- Jira
- Loan IQ
- Loans
- Product Management
- Waterfall Methodology
Work Experience
Business Execution Consultant
2021 - PRESENT
Wells Fargo
- Evaluated loan documentation for new deals, deal amendments, extensions, and upsizes to ensure compliance with bank policies and to verify it could be accurately booked in Loan IQ.
- Reviewed ARAs to ensure risk free rates transition and alignment with Wells Fargo policies and procedures and booked the changes in Loan IQ.
- Conducted booking of the accounting entries in Loan IQ for new deal arrangement fees and deal amendments fees such as an extension or commitment increase fees.
Product Manager
2017 - 2021
Finastra
- Worked with five large European banks to create a proof of concept for passing data from the banks to their syndicated lender groups by digitizing their golden source data held in Loan IQ and displaying it on a web platform accessed by their lenders.
- Created the LenderComm roadmap and worked with development and QA to deliver the roadmap. Created the product increment plans for each release and obtained the buy-in and approval from the various stakeholders and board-level approval.
- Worked with marketing and sales on marketing strategy and supporting materials. Attended loan industry conferences and worked on marketing stands to accelerate market awareness. LenderComm won a number of industry innovation awards.
Senior Loan IQ Business Analyst
2012 - 2014
Finastra
- Analyzed gaps in Loan IQ functionality and wrote Loan IQ enhancement documents to adapt Loan IQ to service the German real estate market and commercial/retail lending to result in a successful migration to Loan IQ.
- Collaborated with our largest US client to gather the business requirements for multiple enhancements for their domestic commercial banking business. Wrote requirement documents and test cases and performed QA on the test cases.
- Utilized Agile and Waterfall methodologies, as well as Confluence and Jira.
Loan IQ Implementation Consultant
2010 - 2012
Finastra
- Ensured the successful functional implementation of the Loan IQ system at the client organization.
- Oversaw all aspects of Loan IQ implementation, documenting clients, business processes, and workflows and mapping to a Loan IQ environment.
- Designed code tables in line with client requirements. Assisted the client with interface and reporting requirements.
- Assisted the client in writing key project documents such as the conversion plan, migration strategy, user acceptance testing plan, and parallel test plan. Coordinated and conducted Loan IQ training program for client employees.
Vice President Loan Administration
2002 - 2007
Bank of America
- Started the loan admin department with me as the sole employee and recruited and trained new employees as the volume of new loans grew exponentially. I ended up with a total of 12 employees managing various portfolios of loans worth USD 50 billion.
- Project-managed the onboarding of new lines of business to be supported by my team to ensure a seamless transition from the old process to Loan IQ.
- Worked with various stakeholders such as credit, finance, risk, and regulatory reporting to ensure they were receiving accurate and relevant data for their downstream systems.
Project History
Creation of the Fusion LenderComm product
Took the product from initial idea through to proof of concept and production-ready release working in a small team of six people.
We harnessed the energy of a small team to work closely together to take the initial product concept swiftly and quickly develop a rudimentary working product. Working with the three developers in an Agile manner, I multitasked as a product manager, BA, and QA, we were able to showcase to our five-partner bank within a few months to allow us to get the go-ahead to move to work on the production release.
Creation of a Loan Administration Group
Created a loans administration group from scratch and ended up managing a group of 12 people with a budget of over USD 1,000,000 over a period of five years.
The journey started with me being asked to monitor two loans booked into the bank, as we had no internal system or structure to provide the required administration. Those two loans, via Loan IQ implementation and migrating various loan lines of businesses around Europe onto Loan IQ in a phased approach, resulted in a portfolio worth USD 50 billion managed by my team of 12.
Enhancements for German Commercial Banking
Delivered the necessary system enhancements to allow the German client bank to migrate the majority of its domestic commercial banking portfolio to Loan IQ.
German commercial banking was a new opportunity for Misys (now Finastra). When I transitioned from Loan IQ implementation to Loan IQ senior business analyst, having worked with the German client as part of the implementation team, it made perfect sense for me to continue to work with them to document their business requirements. This was achieved by onsite visits to meet with business users and many remote conference calls. I worked with the Misys developers and wrote the requirements documents and test cases. I then performed QA to ensure the functionality created worked as required. Once the numerous enhancements were developed and released to the client, it allowed the Loan IQ implementation to proceed to the acceptance testing phase and ultimately to a successful migration and go live.
Skills
Tools
Confluence, Jira
Paradigms
Agile
Other
Loans, Loan IQ, Commercial Lending, Business Analysis, Product Management, Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF), Waterfall Methodology, People Management, Loans & Lending, Project Management, People Development, Employee Training, Annual Budgets
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