Jim Benninger

Director

Jim Benninger is a creative and collaborative senior credit risk professional with a wide variety of financial services/credit experience. Working since the 1980s, Mr. Benninger has a specialty in developing and implementing strategies for banks dealing with financially troubled clients.

This hand-on experience was initially developed from working on commercial and real estate transactions for large commercial banks in Dallas (First Republic) and Boston (Bank of New England), both of which were ultimately taken over and sold by regulators.

Moving to State Street Bank, he furthered his knowledge by handling more commercial loan and international workouts. From 1999-2006, he oversaw the risk management activities (including management of distressed assets) for the Structured Products division of State Street which consisted of asset-backed commercial paper conduits and its Municipal Finance businesses. In response to the 2008 credit crisis, he assumed a role as the senior workout/restructuring officer for State Street for a diverse set of loan and facility types. Other roles at State Street include information systems project and oversight of Credit Analysis, a group charged with credit assessment of most of the Bank’s clients. Jim also led a team of credit approvers tasked with approval and portfolio oversight for State Street’s custody-related facilities as well as its specialized lending facilities. At Citizens Bank, he exercised credit approval authority and portfolio oversight for an approximate $4.0 bn portfolio of New England-based middle market loans, covering a broad array of business types and sizes.

Until his 2019 retirement, he was the Head of Brookline Bancorp’s Credit Review function, charged with independent assessment of and reporting on the assigned internal credit risk ratings of Brookline’s commercial and real estate loan holdings on both a portfolio and an individual loan basis. In that role he developed and delivered enhanced Senior Management and Board of Directors quarterly reporting, including findings on relevant trends that could affect the Bancorp’s overall risk profile.

Jim received both a BBA in Accounting and a JD/MBA from the University of Oklahoma. He holds both CPA and attorney’s licenses from the State of Texas.