For a copy of Mr. Cooney's CV click here

 

Gene Cooney began his banking career in 1973 at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. During his tenure at Mellon he held five increasingly more responsible management positions. His primary responsibilities involved addressing the needs of deposit, loan and cash management/treasury management functions experiencing audit, profit, quality and control difficulties. He managed over 20 different banking functions and reengineered 14 of the functions to include Loan Accounting; Deposit Accounting and Control; Wholesale Lockbox Services, Check Exception Processing (Returns, Adjustments and Collections) and the control aspects of check processing. Eight new software applications were developed or purchased and installed to support these functions.

He also developed, implemented and managed six new products and services, installing new hardware and/or software for five. Prior to assuming other responsibilities two of the products, Retail Lockbox and Funds Concentration, had grown to become the largest services of their kind offered by a U. S. bank at that time. He developed and managed one of the first internal bank income improvement functions; directed a corporate project involving the review of over 7,000 of the bank’s General Ledger accounts and the revision of corporate accounting policies and procedures. He also oversaw the development or revision of bank procedures and operating procedures for all of the new or reengineered functions.

He was very involved in the acquisition of three banks with assets exceeding $7 billion. He completed due diligence, operations evaluations, process reengineering and operations consolidations along with the conversion of the acquisitions to Mellon’s deposit and General Ledger software as required.

The requirements of these and other positions caused him to become extensively involved in the detail associated with the products and services. He also had to develop software evaluation & installation, income improvement, process reengineering and functional design skill sets not typically associated with these positions.

During this period, Mr. Cooney developed a national reputation for implementing innovative processes, staff and equipment configurations, income improvement methodologies, cost containment and workflows. His last position at Mellon, Manager of their largest Banking Operations Division, involved responsibility for processing and controlling the deposit dollars, data, systems and exceptions for this $36 billion bank.

In 1987 Mr. Cooney was recruited to Centrust Bank in Miami, FL to conceptualize, implement and manage a centralized operating strategy for deposits and loans and to install new technology and a service culture at this $13 billion financial services company.

He created and managed the bank’s Operating Department comprised of functions and responsibilities obtained from numerous banking departments and third party processors and directed a significant portion of an $11 million software conversion. New deposit, loan and subsidiary software applications along with new check processing and teller and platform hardware and software were implemented. Most deposit and loan processes were reengineered and many of the bank’s policies and procedures were rewritten to support the new technology and processes.

He also oversaw the installation of a unique system for the control of transactions and established a check capture center in Central Florida; directed profit improvement studies and the development of two new services that increased the bank’s corporate deposit base.

Within 17 months, Mr. Cooney was promoted to manage Operations and Administration assuming responsibility for eight administrative functions in addition to the deposit and loan functions.

After Centrust was acquired in 1990, Mr. Cooney served as an independent consultant completing engagements he acquired and contracting his services to major national consulting firms. In 1998 he formed CCI Consulting located in Atlanta, GA. CCI has developed a specialty in litigation support, software evaluation and installation, cash management/treasury management services, profit improvement, process reengineering and functional design/redesign. Since its inception CCI has completed engagements nationally at banks, savings and loans and other financial services organizations ranging from $250 million to over $500 billion of assets.

Engagements completed include:

• branch office reengineering and operations consolidations for bank holding companies;
• vendor selection and installation of leasing software; General Ledger account reconciliation software; deposit and loan system software and policies, procedures and software for up to 13 cash management products and services;
• reengineering state tax return and payment processing functions and bank wholesale and retail lockbox functions to mirror state of the art lockbox operations;
• reengineering check processing, return items, adjustments, check clearing and deposit application system balancing and control at banks and operating centers of major banks;
• reengineering a national loan payment network and commercial loan accounting;
• functional design and support for return item, adjustment and retail lockbox software;
• developing operating and retail banking strategic plans;
  implementing regional check clearing; electronic check presentment and a late evening check exchange for a regional trade association;
• income improvement, reserve requirement reduction and cash vault modeling studies at over 30 banks and savings and loans.

Mr. Cooney has over 35 years of banking experience as a line manager and consultant. As a manager he has had responsibility for all aspects of deposit operations; many aspects of loan administration and the operations associated with various cash management products. As a consultant he has been involved in the minutia associated with the above and many other aspects of banking to include strategic planning and change management.

Gene has served as an expert in state and federal cases addressing the needs of clients from North America, South America and the Bahamas. The clients were both plaintiffs and defendants in civil and criminal actions. These cases involved amounts at issue ranging from $100,000 to $130 million and were associated with financial institutions with assets from $140 million to $1.3 trillion.

His cases run the gamut of traditional issues to include but not limited to the illegal movement of funds using cash management products; mortgage loan administration, return items, violation of check processing, teller and deposit procedures, regulations and standard practices; disaster recovery, embezzlement and bank fraud. Gene has also been involved with many contemporary issues both as a consultant and an expert to include depositing embezzled or fraudulently obtained funds into bank accounts which may lead to money laundering; identity theft; Check 21 replacement documents; point of sale (POS); and no envelope ATMs.

 

Mr. Cooney holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from Duquesne University and a Master of Administration Degree in Business from Penn State University.  He passed the Certified Cash Manager (CCM) exam in 1987.  He is a graduate of the Business of Banking School at Cornell and the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers. He completed a Production Dynamics course conducted by professors from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an Engineering Project Management course offered by Westinghouse Corporation and Object Oriented Software Analysis and Design courses.

 

Mr. Cooney has served as an instructor and guest lecturer for professional organizations and institutions of higher learning to include La Roche College; Duquesne University; University of Miami; National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA); Pennsylvania Banker’s Association; Bank Administration Institute (BAI); Recognition Technology Association; Pennsylvania Mortgage Bankers and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

He has also served on Bank Administration Institute and Federal Reserve Task Forces studying, preparing reports and making recommendations on national banking issues

Mr. Cooney is currently a member of the Georgia Automated Clearinghouse Association (GACHA), the National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA) and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS).

Prior affiliations include the Cash Managers Association (CMA) having passed the Certification Exam in 1987 and offices in professional organizations to include a national technical association industry chair and two regional electronic banking organizations.  Mr. Cooney served as Vice Chairman of the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) financial services standards organization for four years and as a member of its Board of Directors for over five years. This ANSI organization is comprised of over 180 financial services organizations and affiliated service providers. It is responsible for the development, maintenance and revision of over 70 national financial services standards and technical guidelines. ANSI also represents the United States in the development of international financial services standards worldwide. These standards and guidelines are applicable to many aspects of the financial services industry.

The standards and technical guidelines address checks, endorsements and the MICR line; electronic check processing; deposit tickets; check fraud; Check 21; paper and image based payments; message encryption and authentication; key management and cryptography; PINs; bank and credit cards; electronic records and signatures; privacy impact assessments and a myriad of other subjects that have significant bearing on the financial services industry.

Mr. Cooney led the development of national Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards as they relate to financial services organizations and coordinated this effort with the ANSI corporate EDI standards body. After data elements for several formats were developed and approved, the corporate standards body assumed complete responsibility for the standards.