5 Important Roles Of A Credit Analyst

A credit analyst is a person employed by an organization to analyze the creditworthiness of customers and potential customers and to assist in the ongoing management and modelling of credit risk thereafter. What a credit analyst does is mainly related to gathering and analysing financial data about clients. These professionals are tasked with evaluating the data and recommending a course of actions for individuals or businesses.. 

A credit analyst will assess several factors, to decide whether or not a customer is likely to default on payments or not.

How to become a credit analyst

To qualify and venture into a career in this field, a professional requires:

• A bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting.
• This profession also requires aptitude in ratio analysis, basic accounting and other skills.
• Additionally, one is required to have quantitative skills, along with knowledge of industries. This is because as a credit analyst, one may need to have an understanding of various sectors.
• Being able to multitask also comes in handy.
• Knowledge of financial software is also advantageous.

Credit analysts are sought out by organisations as their roles are essential to mitigate risk.

 Roles of a credit analyst:

• Reviewing credit applications
• Projecting sales
• Evaluating credit risk
• Analyzing financial data, statements and trends
• Setting new customer credit limits
• Recommending credit limits based on company credit policies
• Performing credit reviews of existing customers
• Maintaining customer files with financial statements and bank reference information
• Resolving credit issues
• Monitoring risk trends on behalf of management and sales personnel