Nathaniel Eidt is a Senior Director of Business Development and Sales at MountainView Risk & Analytics. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, he works remotely with clients all over the country, putting his expertise in deposit analysis and interest rate risk to use. He manages relationships with clients and facilitates learning about various MVRA products. Having spent most of his career in the banking industry, he has honed his skills and has extensive knowledge in several highly valuable, specialized areas. In the interview below, Nate gives us some insight into the inner workings of his job at MVRA, banking experience, and his love of sports and the outdoors.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself?
A: My name is Nathaniel Eidt, I do Business Development and Sales at MountainView Risk & Analytics. Technically, they call me a Senior Director. My background is in banking and finance. I grew up in New York and I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona. I’ve been in finance in one way, shape or form since I graduated from college. I have been in banking specifically for about a decade now, working at banks, consulting firms, etc. I’ve had the opportunity to work at banks ranging in size, from two to forty billion in assets. I enjoy this job because I get to work with various banks and clients and try to help them work through their issues that they need to solve.
Q: Can you tell me a little about what led to your trajectory in risk management and how you came to work for MVRA specifically?
A: I worked at the New York Mercantile Exchange for about five years after college. It was great but it just wasn’t really a career at that point. I wanted to get into banking and to get out of the city (New York City) and move out West and I saw an opportunity in retail banking. When you work in a treasury department you can live in almost anywhere you want. You can find a bank in any city, right? I was looking to get into retail banking, and for me that meant going to work within a treasury department, either in interest rate risk or investment management. I ended up getting an interest rate risk job and the rest is kind of history.
I came to MVRA because I wanted this job. I started within interest rate risk by working for Fiserv on ‘Sendero’, their interest rate risk software they provide for banks and other financial service enterprises. I went to work for them to support and implement the Sendero model (although called something else at the time). After Fiserv, I moved to St. Louis to work for Scottrade and run their IRR model. After Scottrade I worked remotely for a consulting firm out of Georgia validating ALM models, consulting on DFAST, and running deposit studies for clients. I then moved onto a credit union for about two and a half years, with my role being their ALM manager and running the finance department. I have been at MVRA for a little over two years now, and I get to apply my knowledge and experience in my position here at MVRA every day.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your day-to-day work?
A: I get up, shower, go to my computer, and start answering emails. I’m in Phoenix so we are on Pacific Standard Time a little over half the year and the rest of the year we are on Mountain Standard. I work with people all over the country so by the time I come in, I usually have a bunch of emails. I start answering emails, put out fires if there are any, start contacting clients, set up calls, catch up and network with people I haven’t talked to in a while. If I have a slow couple of days, I’ll send out emails to stay in touch with people I haven’t touched base with in a while. Around here, we wear a lot of hats, which I like. It certainly helps to be a subject matter expert within what we sell and that’s kind of what I am. I’m focused on helping organizations work through their issues. Giving them insight is always fantastic. I enjoy not only the sales process but sitting in on calls with client who I have sold products to, validations or deposit studies, ensuring everything goes smoothly. Being the subject matter expert gives me the opportunity to help the project manager understand ALM or how the institution can utilize the deposit study that we sold them. So, I try to always be a buffer and give assistance, both to the client and internally.
Q: What area of this industry would you like to see change or grow?
A: I think that in general, the regulatory landscape is certainly pushing everyone to classify more and more things as being model. From a regulatory standpoint, more of those models need to be validated, and as time goes on that starts applying to smaller and smaller institutions. So, I think that is happening regardless of what I would like to see. My personal belief regarding industry change is that banks don’t utilize all their data well enough. There are a lot of ways to utilize your data internally from your deposits and depositors. The more that you can utilize the data, the better you’re going to be as an institution. There are a lot of ways that you can analyze, model, and then use that data to make management decisions. You can use it for much more than regulatory purposes and modeling input, so even though you must use your deposit data for inputs into your interest rate risk models, you can also use this data for management decision making. By and large, that is not happening too often in our industry. Larger banks are probably doing more than smaller bank, but it still gets pushed to the wayside. I think there are a lot of inroads you can make toward being a better institution to serve your clients and therefore be more profitable if you could spend the time to be more data oriented.
Q: I have to ask, because this is such a hot topic and you have experience as a trader, are you more of an index fund, meme stock or bitcoin guy?
A: Haha! What I do right now is my portfolio is made up of half inflation hedges and the other half of things that will keep running if the stock market goes up. That’s a different way to answer that question. I do have crypto, but I just have small positions for diversity. Having a portfolio with diverse exposure is smart for the timelines I need to trade at. Where I come from, the New York Mercantile Exchange and my commodities background, I traded futures. Futures traders always think the world is going to fall apart. Derivatives and futures guys are much more countercyclical. So, I try to be less countercyclical since that’s my nature. The way I would describe how I am with my money right now is that I’m trying to hedge the possibility of inflation as much as I can while not over-committing to that trade. I’m also keeping money in the market that will continue to make money if the market keeps going up.
Q: What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
A: I have a bunch of hobbies, which is good and bad. It’s hard to just concentrate on one. I play ice hockey once or twice a week. I golf 2-3 times a month. I also hunt and fish. Most things I do outdoors revolves around hunting, fishing, and camping. I try to do those activities, when possible, but it’s very season oriented. I hunt in Arizona, and I like to travel to hunt. I’ve gone hunting all over the West, in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, etc. I travel to my home state, New York, as well. I hunt anything I can get a tag for out west, since there’s not a lot of opportunity. But even though Arizona is partly a desert, there are tons of outdoor things to do around here. I also try to ski as much as I can in the winter. I grew up skiing in upstate New York and Vermont which has great ski mountains. These days I try to travel to ski, but I don’t get to do it as much as I would like.
Q: Has your job always been remote?
A: My time with MVRA has always been remote. My understanding is that MVRA as legacy McGuire Performance Solutions has been remote for probably 15 or 20 years. Our company has been well set up to work remotely, and we didn’t have to scramble to adapt during the beginning of the pandemic. I had worked at a company remotely prior to MVRA that wasn’t set up well to work from home, and it was much harder. At MVRA, it’s completely different. Every single meeting is done via Microsoft Teams, and our team is so integrated it’s just easier. You never miss out on important information, and we are constantly in communication.
Q: What’s your favorite part of working with MVRA?
A: It’s a great team, and I love working with all the different clients. I like utilizing my expertise to give them insight and help them reach their goals. Whatever they are coming to us to figure out or solve, I always enjoy working directly with the different clients and facilitating that success.
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