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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Credit Analyst

💰 $60,000 - $110,000

FinanceRiskCredit AnalysisBanking

🎯 Role Definition

A Credit Analyst is responsible for evaluating creditworthiness and financial strength of borrowers, underwriting loan facilities, monitoring credit portfolios, and producing clear, actionable credit recommendations. This role blends deep financial statement analysis, cash flow modeling, regulatory awareness and client-facing negotiation to support sound lending decisions and portfolio performance. The ideal candidate will be experienced in commercial or corporate lending environments, proficient with credit risk tools, and able to present risk-adjusted recommendations to credit committees and senior stakeholders.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Credit Analyst I / Junior Credit Analyst
  • Financial Analyst (commercial or corporate)
  • Loan Officer or Relationship Manager

Advancement To:

  • Senior Credit Analyst / Lead Credit Analyst
  • Credit Risk Manager / Portfolio Manager
  • Underwriting Manager or Head of Credit

Lateral Moves:

  • Risk Analyst (market or operational risk)
  • Relationship Manager / Commercial Banker
  • Corporate Treasury or Structured Finance roles

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Conduct comprehensive credit risk assessments and underwriting for commercial and corporate lending, analyzing historical and projected financial statements, cash flow, collateral, guarantees, and industry dynamics to determine borrower creditworthiness and recommend approval limits and pricing.
  • Prepare detailed credit memos, executive summaries and presentation materials for credit committees that clearly document credit rationale, risk drivers, covenants, mitigation measures, and recommended loan structures and terms.
  • Build, maintain and validate financial models including multi-year cash flow projections, ratio analysis, sensitivity and scenario testing to evaluate repayment capacity under base, upside and stressed assumptions.
  • Evaluate loan structures, collateral packages, security perfection, intercreditor arrangements and legal documentation; coordinate with legal counsel to ensure enforceability and appropriate documentation of covenants.
  • Monitor a defined loan portfolio through periodic reviews, covenant compliance checks, early-warning indicator tracking and watchlist management, escalating deterioration and recommending remedial actions, restructurings or workout strategies.
  • Apply credit scoring systems, internal risk-rating methodologies and credit policy frameworks to consistently rate exposures, assess concentration risks and support regulatory capital and provisioning calculations.
  • Liaise with relationship managers, originators and clients to request and validate financial data, conduct site visits, explain credit decisions and negotiate covenants, pricing and repayment terms to align client needs with risk appetite.
  • Conduct industry, market and macroeconomic research to identify sector-specific risks, emerging trends and competitive pressures that could materially affect borrower performance and portfolio risk.
  • Perform due diligence for new facilities, acquisitions, syndicated loans and participations, including background checks, related-party exposure assessments and verification of management track record.
  • Recommend decisions on loan approvals, declines, renewals, limit increases and credit line adjustments, articulating risk/return trade-offs and proposing mitigants to senior management and committees.
  • Track and analyze early-warning indicators and delinquencies; prepare remediation plans, participate in collections strategy and collaborate with recovery teams to minimize losses and maximize recoveries.
  • Ensure timely and accurate maintenance of credit files, collateral records and covenant monitoring documentation to support internal audits, external audits and regulatory examinations.
  • Collaborate with credit risk analytics, portfolio management and finance to refine risk models, improve loss forecasting, and support capital allocation and stress-testing activities.
  • Support loan syndication, sale and secondary market activities by preparing due diligence packages, risk disclosures and investor materials to facilitate distribution or participations.
  • Review and assess requests for covenant waivers, amendments and restructurings, quantifying impact on risk profile and recommending suitable documentation and compensating controls.
  • Prepare monthly and quarterly credit portfolio reports, dashboards and MIS for senior management highlighting concentrations, migration trends and emerging problem areas requiring action.
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of accounting standards (GAAP/IFRS), impairment methodologies (CECL/IFRS9) and regulatory guidance to ensure credit analysis and provisioning assumptions are accurate and compliant.
  • Mentor, train and review work of junior analysts; provide constructive feedback on modeling, memo drafting and underwriting best practices to uplift team capability.
  • Interact with auditors, regulators and compliance teams during examinations, providing documentation, clarifications and remediation plans as required.
  • Use credit research platforms and market data providers (e.g., Moody’s, S&P, Bloomberg, S&P Capital IQ) and credit risk systems (e.g., LoanIQ, FIS) to source benchmarking data, market intelligence and ratings inputs for robust credit analysis.
  • Develop and maintain client-specific risk profiles and relationship strategies aligned to the institution’s risk appetite and commercial objectives to support disciplined portfolio growth.
  • Participate in cross-functional projects such as product launches, pricing initiatives or digital credit platform implementations to embed risk controls and enhance underwriting efficiency.
  • Validate external appraisals and collateral valuations, coordinate with valuers and insurance providers and ensure collateral coverage and insurance terms are adequate and enforceable.
  • Support calculation and validation of credit metrics used in regulatory capital, impairment provisioning and internal reporting, liaising with finance to ensure consistent application of provisioning models.
  • Identify and implement process improvements, automation and workflow enhancements within the credit lifecycle to reduce turnaround times and increase data accuracy.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc reporting requests, prepare pitchbooks and loan proposal packages for relationship managers and originations teams.
  • Contribute to periodic credit policy reviews and recommended updates based on observed portfolio trends, regulatory changes and best practices.
  • Assist with user acceptance testing and requirements gathering for credit risk systems, scoring tools and dashboards.
  • Participate in and occasionally lead internal training sessions, knowledge-sharing forums and onboarding for junior staff.
  • Provide credit input to business development and client onboarding teams to ensure new opportunities fit within risk appetite and documentation standards.
  • Coordinate with treasury, compliance and legal during complex or multi-jurisdictional transactions to ensure comprehensive risk mitigation.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Financial statement analysis: ability to interpret balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements and footnotes to identify credit risk drivers.
  • Credit underwriting and structuring for commercial, corporate and syndicated loans.
  • Cash flow modeling, sensitivity analysis, scenario planning and debt service coverage calculations.
  • Credit risk assessment, internal risk rating systems and credit scoring models (PD/LGD concepts).
  • Knowledge of accounting standards (GAAP/IFRS) and impairment methodologies (CECL/IFRS9).
  • Advanced Excel skills including pivot tables, complex formulas, and financial modeling best practices; familiarity with VBA a plus.
  • Experience with credit and market data platforms (Bloomberg, S&P Capital IQ, Moody’s) and loan systems (LoanIQ, FIS, nCino or similar).
  • SQL and data querying for extracting and reconciling financial and portfolio data.
  • Understanding of regulatory frameworks and capital requirements (Basel III/IV, local banking regulators).
  • Collateral valuation techniques and familiarity with appraisal processes, real estate and asset-backed lending considerations.
  • Risk reporting, MIS development and dashboarding experience (Power BI, Tableau or equivalent).
  • Experience with loan documentation review and familiarity with legal covenants, intercreditor arrangements and security perfection processes.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical thinking and meticulous attention to detail when assessing risks and preparing credit documentation.
  • Clear and persuasive written and verbal communication tailored for credit committees, clients and stakeholders.
  • Effective stakeholder management and negotiation skills when balancing business objectives and risk constraints.
  • Good judgment and decision-making skills, particularly under ambiguity or time pressure.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to handle multiple credit reviews and deadlines.
  • Collaborative team player with the ability to mentor junior staff and work across originations, legal and finance teams.
  • Ethical judgment, integrity and confidentiality in handling sensitive client and credit information.
  • Client-facing interpersonal skills with the ability to explain complex credit concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field.

Preferred Education:
Master’s degree (MBA, MS Finance) or professional credentials such as CFA, CPA, Certified Credit Professional (CCP) or equivalent banking certifications.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Finance
  • Accounting
  • Economics
  • Business Administration
  • Risk Management
  • Banking and Financial Services

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:
2 – 5 years of progressive experience in credit analysis, commercial lending, corporate underwriting or related finance roles.

Preferred:
3 – 7+ years of experience with exposure to commercial or corporate credit underwriting, portfolio management, syndicated lending, or credit risk analytics; prior banking or financial institution experience strongly preferred.

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