His primary areas of concentration are commercial and commercial real estate loans, leveraged financing, syndicated loans, internal loan review, internal audit and the assessment of corporate governance and operational risk policies and practices.

Mr. Bazata was formerly a senior examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). He led or participated in the examination of large, mid-size and community bank institutions throughout the U.S. He was also an active participant in the OCC’s international examination program with assignments in London, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Before joining A&M, Mr. Bazata spent over 34 years with the OCC. As a National Bank Examiner, he was Examiner-in-Charge (EIC) of six mid-size banking organizations and directed examination activities at several large banking institutions. He was EIC or team leader in the OCC’s Shared National Credit Program and served as the corporate governance functional lead at mid-size organizations. He was also actively involved in the evaluation of novel or “shelf charter” midsize applications.

Besides his examination responsibilities, Mr. Bazata served in numerous leadership roles at the OCC. He was the Assistant Deputy Comptroller for Y2K remediation, the Chairman of the Midwestern District Risk Committee, Acting Director of Regional Banks, ADC Midsize Banks, and ADC of the Los Angeles Field Office. He also led a problem bank supervisory group in the Midwestern District Office.  

He was a member of the OCC’s National Risk Committee, Operational Risk Committee and Retail Banking Group. He led numerous horizontal risk reviews. He participated in a number of industry risk panels, was a presenter at Midsize CEO roundtables and was an OCC instructor in a variety of disciplines.

Mr. Bazata earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He also holds certificates from the three-year program at the Colorado Graduate School of Banking in Boulder, CO and a one-year program at the National Commercial Lending Graduate School in Norman, OK.