
The Art of Credit Committee Survival: How One Risk Officer Beat the System Without Getting Fired
In the high-stakes world of commercial lending, where 68% of loan officers admit to feeling pressure to approve questionable deals (ABA 2024 survey), one veteran credit committee member at a regional bank has achieved the impossible—a 17-year streak of zero accountability actions. His secret? A counterintuitive voting strategy that exposes the broken incentives in America’s loan approval systems. Here’s what risk managers can learn from this unorthodox approach. I. The Contrarian Playbook That Works 1. The “Reverse Consensus” Algorithm 2. Psychological Armor II. Why This Works—The Flaws in Loan Approval Systems 1. The Herd Immunity Paradox 2. The Scapegoat Economy III. The Dark Side of Risk Management Theater 1. Compliance vs. Common Sense 2. The Charade of “Shared Responsibility” IV....