Credit: currently 800 jobs.The latest job was posted on 22 May 18.

Credit

Credit is the provision of goods, services or funds ahead of payment, in the trust that payment will be made later. Banks, financial institutions and private equity firms all employ credit analysts and credit risk managers in order to ensure prudent lending practices and to mitigate credit risk.

What Do Credit Professionals Do?

The basic job of a credit professional is to review credit applications from the bank's clients, or from financial institutions who are the firm's counterparties.

Credit analysts will typically prepare credit proposals and reviews, which are used to help decide whether to lend to a particular client. Credit professionals must adhere not only to their company's credit policies, but also with local regulations. An analyst will look at a variety of factors, including operating experience, management team, asset quality and liquidity ratios before making a recommendation.

Career Progression and Necessary Skills

Junior credit analysts work largely behind the scenes in a very analytical and quantitative role. As your career expands, however, you can expect the work to become more varied and demanding. A senior credit risk analyst is expected to be up to date with the financial market in their sector, and requires a thorough understanding of the relevant risk profiles.

The ability to make sound credit decisions is a skill which comes largely with experience and on the job training. Credit professionals can be recruited straight from university with a finance or economics degree. A key ability is knowing how to balance the sales team's desire to expand business against the need to mitigate risk for the employer.

Specialisations

Credit professionals often have a varied career, but it is possible to specialise. Some roles for instance focus only on counterparty risk - in these jobs, the credit risk analyst will make due diligence visits to collect credit information for analysis.