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The Company
Merchant Growth is Canada's leading fintech for small business financing and one of the country's most recognized growth stories, celebrated by The Globe and Mail's Top Growing Companies and BC Finalist for Deloitte's Best Managed Companies. We're on a mission to fuel the ambitions of Canadian business owners with the most convenient, accessible, and trusted financing experience in the market. We're powered by a rapidly advancing tech platform and a team that loves to build, and what we're building genuinely moves the needle for business owners across Canada.
As Lead, Insolvency and Agency Management, you'll own how Merchant Growth recovers value from accounts that have moved beyond day-to-day collections, including insolvencies, legal recoveries and accounts placed with external partners. You'll join a high-performing, creative, and collaborative group known for scaling teams with intention, solving meaningful challenges, and creating space for talented people to do their best work. If you're energized by growth, excited by tough and rewarding challenges, and looking for a place where your contributions matter, this is the opportunity that makes careers.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Lead, Insolvency and Agency Management, reporting to the VP of Collections, to act as our internal subject matter lead for bankruptcies, proposals, receiverships, legal recovery and external collection activity. This role takes ownership of accounts escalated from our Collections team, manages our network of collection agencies, law firms and other recovery vendors, and makes recovery decisions based on expected return, cost and risk. You'll work closely with Collections, Legal, Finance and Risk to maximize recoveries while maintaining strong documentation, controls and regulatory compliance. While this role does not currently have direct reports, it is designed to grow with us. As our portfolio and team expand, we expect this role to build and lead a dedicated recoveries team. In the meantime, you'll act as a subject matter resource and mentor for our Collections team on insolvency, escalations and recovery best practices.
Main Functions
Insolvency Management:
Manage accounts subject to bankruptcy, proposal, receivership, CCAA restructuring or other formal insolvency proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).
Review insolvency notices, creditor packages and supporting documentation to determine the appropriate recovery strategy.
Prepare, file and track Proofs of Claim and other creditor documentation, ensuring all filing deadlines are met.
Review our security position, including PPSA registrations, to confirm secured or unsecured standing on each file.
Act as the primary contact for Licensed Insolvency Trustees, receivers, monitors and insolvency counsel, and attend creditor meetings as required.
Assess proposals and recommend voting positions based on expected recovery compared with alternatives.
Monitor key filing dates, creditor meetings, distributions and other insolvency milestones.
Track expected and realized distributions and maintain accurate status updates on all insolvency files.
Agency and Vendor Management:
Own relationships with collection agencies, law firms, skip tracing providers, investigators and asset-search providers.
Develop and maintain placement strategies based on account age, balance, jurisdiction, risk and recovery potential.
Manage account placement, recall, reassignment and escalation processes.
Set service-level expectations and conduct regular performance and business reviews with each vendor.
Monitor recovery rates, liquidation rates, cost-to-collect and other agency performance metrics, and act on underperformance.
Ensure vendors comply with contractual, privacy and regulatory requirements and with our controls on information sharing.
Reconcile agency recoveries, commissions and remittances.
Participate in vendor selection, onboarding and contract reviews, and keep pricing and service terms competitive.
Legal and Guarantor Recovery:
Assess accounts for legal action, enforcement, settlement or further investigation.
Coordinate files requiring legal action with internal Legal and external counsel, and oversee litigation and enforcement activity.
Lead recovery against personal and corporate guarantors, including assessing the scope and enforceability of guarantees.
Coordinate asset, property, corporate and PPSA searches to support recovery decisions.
Partner with Risk and Collections on accounts showing signs of fraud or misrepresentation.
Recovery Strategy and Escalations:
Take ownership of accounts escalated from the Collections team, including accounts that remain unlocated after internal skip tracing, and determine the next recovery step.
Partner with Collections leadership to set clear hand-off criteria between internal Collections and external Recoveries.
Act as a subject matter resource for the Collections team, including coaching Associates on escalated accounts, skip tracing and insolvency matters.
Recommend or approve settlements, legal escalation, write-offs or continued recovery activity within approved authority limits.
Support the development of settlement, legal and write-off policies, including settlement authority and escalation thresholds.
Identify accounts requiring specialized recovery approaches and opportunities to improve recovery performance.
Reporting and Analysis:
Produce regular reporting on insolvency and legal inventory, agency placements and performance, post-write-off recoveries, recovery costs and expected insolvency distributions.
Identify trends in defaults, insolvencies and recoveries, and provide recommendations to management.
Work with Finance to support appropriate treatment of recoveries, provisions and write-offs.
Required Experience, Knowledge, and Skills
Minimum 5 years of experience in commercial collections, recoveries, insolvency, special assets or financial services.
Strong working knowledge of Canadian insolvency processes, including the BIA, CCAA and the roles of Licensed Insolvency Trustees and receivers.
Experience managing collection agencies, law firms or other recovery vendors, including setting and enforcing performance standards.
Experience with commercial lending, fintech, merchant cash advance or small-business credit portfolios preferred.
Understanding of personal guarantees, secured lending and PPSA, including how they apply to merchant cash advance agreements, is an asset.
Proven ability to evaluate recovery options based on expected return, cost and risk.
Strong analytical skills, with experience building and interpreting recovery and vendor performance reporting.
Strong communication, negotiation and vendor-management skills.
Experience mentoring, coaching or leading others is an asset.
Highly organized, with the ability to manage multiple active files and hard deadlines.
Experience with CRM, lending or collections management systems preferred.
French language fluency is an asset.
How Success Is Measured
Overall recovery rate across insolvency, legal and agency placements
Agency liquidation rate and performance against SLA
Cost-to-collect
Time from default to appropriate recovery placement
Timeliness and accuracy of Proofs of Claim and other insolvency filings
Vendor compliance and audit results
Key Relationships
Internal: Collections, Legal, Finance, Risk and Underwriting, Operations and Executive Leadership.
