Credit Analysis Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Credit Analysts, Relationship Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-BI-070

Before you join: Participants should understand basic accounting terms, including revenue, operating profit, assets, liabilities, cash flow and debt.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Credit decisions fail when analysts accept reported earnings without testing cash conversion, overlook debt-like obligations, rely on weak security, or approve facilities without clear repayment sources. These failures can produce avoidable arrears, covenant breaches, unexpected impairment charges and difficult recovery cases. Credit analysts need to form a defensible view of borrower capacity, financial resilience, management quality, industry risk and facility structure before recommending an exposure.

This course develops the analysis and judgement expected of credit professionals assessing corporate, commercial and financial-institution borrowers. Participants spread financial statements, rebuild operating cash flow, assess working-capital cycles, calculate key credit ratios and identify adjustments required for leases, guarantees, related-party balances and exceptional items. They apply the Five Cs of Credit, industry analysis, debt capacity assessment, collateral evaluation, covenant design and probability-of-default thinking. The course also addresses financial institution and insurer analysis, including capital adequacy, liquidity, asset quality, reserve risk and regulatory considerations.

Teaching combines short technical briefings with guided credit cases, financial statement analysis, group discussion, lending simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with realistic borrower information such as management accounts, facility terms, bank statements, industry data and covenant reports. They leave with a reusable credit analysis pack containing a financial spreading template, cash-flow assessment model, credit memorandum structure, covenant checklist, early-warning indicator schedule and personal application plan for their own credit portfolio or approval process.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with lending, credit risk, relationship management, underwriting, finance or insurance counterparties. It is particularly relevant where participants must prepare, review or challenge credit proposals and monitoring reports.

What you will be able to do

  • Analyse borrower repayment capacity using adjusted financial statements and cash-flow forecasts
  • Apply the Five Cs of Credit to form structured borrower risk assessments
  • Calculate and interpret liquidity, profitability, coverage, gearing and working-capital ratios
  • Construct debt capacity assessments using sustainable cash flow and repayment sources
  • Evaluate collateral, guarantees, covenants and facility structures against identified risks
  • Prepare credit memoranda with clear recommendations, conditions and risk mitigants
  • Assess banks and insurers using capital, liquidity, asset-quality and reserve indicators
  • Design early-warning indicator schedules and watchlist escalation actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce credit recommendations supported by clear repayment and risk evidence
  • Identify weak cash conversion before it becomes a repayment problem
  • Challenge reported profits through financial statement adjustments and ratio trends
  • Structure facilities with covenants, security and conditions matched to actual risks
  • Build credibility when presenting credit cases to approval committees

For your organisation

  • Improve consistency of borrower analysis across relationship and credit teams
  • Reduce avoidable approval weaknesses in cash flow, security and covenant assessment
  • Strengthen documentation for delegated authorities, audit review and regulatory inspection
  • Detect deterioration earlier through defined monitoring triggers and watchlist actions
  • Support better risk-adjusted lending decisions and portfolio quality

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define credit risk components and apply a disciplined credit assessment sequence.

  • Credit risk lifecycle from origination, approval and booking to monitoring and recovery
  • Five Cs of Credit: character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions
  • Obligor, facility and transaction risk distinguished within approval decisions
  • Risk appetite statements translated into sector, tenor and concentration limits
  • Credit file evidence mapped to policy, authority and audit requirements
  • Early warning indicators linked to escalation thresholds and watchlist actions

Participants can spread financial statements and make adjustments needed for credit analysis.

  • IFRS financial statements reconciled before analyst adjustments and ratio calculation
  • Income statement quality tested for recurring earnings and noncash gains
  • Balance-sheet debt adjusted for leases, guarantees and off-balance-sheet obligations
  • Cash flow statements rebuilt using indirect-method operating cash flow drivers
  • Common-size analysis identifies structural changes in margins, working capital and capital intensity
  • Spreading templates standardise historical data, note disclosures and management accounts

Participants can assess sustainable cash generation, liquidity pressure and debt repayment capacity.

  • Operating cash flow reconciled from EBITDA through working-capital movements and taxes
  • Thirteen-week cash forecasts test short-term liquidity and funding requirements
  • Cash conversion cycle analysis links receivables, inventory and payables to liquidity
  • Free cash flow calculated after maintenance capital expenditure and tax commitments
  • Debt service coverage ratio tested against interest, principal and lease payments
  • Repayment sources ranked between operating cash flow, refinancing, asset sales and sponsors

Participants can assess non-financial factors that affect borrower resilience and repayment capacity.

  • PESTLE analysis identifies macroeconomic, regulatory and demand-side credit pressures
  • Porter's Five Forces tests industry profitability, rivalry and customer bargaining power
  • Business model assessment traces revenue concentration, cost flexibility and pricing power
  • Management quality reviewed through track record, governance, succession and reporting discipline
  • Customer and supplier concentration quantified using revenue and procurement dependency data
  • Scenario analysis tests borrower resilience under revenue, margin and interest-rate shocks

Participants can match facility structures and risk mitigants to borrower needs and identified weaknesses.

  • Term loans, revolving facilities and trade lines matched to funding purposes
  • Amortisation profiles aligned with asset lives, cash generation and refinancing risk
  • Security packages assessed for enforceability, ranking, valuation and realisation risks
  • Guarantees evaluated for guarantor capacity, legal validity and claim mechanics
  • Financial covenants set using leverage, interest cover and debt service measures
  • Conditions precedent address documentation, insurance, security perfection and information delivery

Participants can assess the principal credit drivers of bank and insurance counterparties.

  • CAMELS framework assesses capital, assets, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity
  • Bank asset quality reviewed through nonperforming loans, provisioning and concentration measures
  • Liquidity coverage and funding profiles assessed through deposit stability and maturity gaps
  • Insurer balance sheets examined for reserves, reinsurance recoverables and investment risk
  • Risk-based capital indicators interpreted alongside regulatory minimums and management buffers
  • Financial institution contagion assessed through interbank exposures, affiliates and market confidence

Participants can use credit risk metrics and impairment concepts to support risk classification.

  • Probability of default estimated from financial, behavioural and qualitative risk factors
  • Loss given default considers collateral value, ranking, recovery costs and timing
  • Exposure at default reflects committed limits, utilisation patterns and contingent liabilities
  • IFRS 9 staging distinguishes performing, underperforming and credit-impaired exposures
  • Expected credit loss combines probability, exposure, loss severity and forward scenarios
  • Altman Z-score used cautiously alongside sector knowledge and qualitative judgement

Participants can prepare clear credit memoranda that support informed approval decisions.

  • Credit memorandum structure separates borrower analysis, facility request and recommendation
  • Executive summaries state proposed exposure, repayment source, risks and mitigants
  • Financial trends presented through tables, ratios, adjustments and forecast assumptions
  • Risk-rating rationale connects evidence to internal grading criteria and approval authority
  • Conditions, covenants and reporting requirements drafted as measurable obligations
  • Recommendations distinguish approval, decline, deferral and approval-with-conditions decisions

Participants can monitor exposures, identify deterioration and select proportionate intervention actions.

  • Post-approval monitoring schedules align reporting frequency with borrower risk characteristics
  • Covenant compliance tested using definitions, calculation dates and waiver requirements
  • Early warning signals include arrears, overdraft excesses, delayed accounts and management changes
  • Watchlist classifications trigger heightened review, action plans and senior escalation
  • Forbearance assessed against borrower viability, affordability and realistic repayment capacity
  • Recovery strategies compare consensual restructuring, security enforcement, sale and insolvency options

Participants can combine financial, qualitative and structural evidence into a defensible credit view.

  • Integrated borrower assessment connects business risk, financial risk and facility protections
  • Downside cases test covenant headroom, liquidity resilience and refinancing dependence
  • Credit committee challenge questions address assumptions, omissions, alternatives and escalation
  • Risk mitigants prioritised by effectiveness, enforceability, timing and residual exposure
  • Approval rationale documented with clear evidence, conditions and monitoring responsibilities
  • Personal application plans identify immediate improvements to current credit review practices

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Credit analysis memorandum template
  2. Financial statement spreading workbook
  3. Debt capacity and cash-flow assessment model
  4. Facility structuring and covenant checklist
  5. Early-warning indicator and watchlist schedule
  6. Credit review application plan

Who should attend

  • Credit Analysts — need consistent methods for borrower assessment and recommendation writing
  • Relationship Managers — need to structure proposals that meet credit approval standards
  • Commercial Bankers — need stronger analysis of repayment capacity and facility risk
  • Credit Risk Officers — need to challenge lending proposals and monitor deteriorating exposures
  • Underwriters — need disciplined assessment of corporate and financial-institution counterparties
  • Finance Managers — need to understand how lenders assess financial strength and debt capacity

Skills and tools covered

Financial statement spreadingCash flow analysisCredit risk assessmentDebt structuringCovenant designPortfolio monitoring

Tools and standards

IFRS 9, CAMELS framework, Altman Z-score, Porter's Five Forces

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce credit methods, followed by financial statement cases, borrower-risk discussions, group analysis and lending decision simulations. Participants analyse realistic corporate and financial-institution information, identify reporting adjustments, assess repayment sources and debate facility terms. Facilitated feedback compares alternative credit views against stated evidence and policy considerations. Application planning helps participants translate the methods into their own approval, review or monitoring responsibilities. Trainers adapt cases and discussion emphasis to the cohort's sector and credit responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic accounting terms, including revenue, operating profit, assets, liabilities, cash flow and debt. Experience reading company financial statements, preparing lending proposals, managing client relationships or reviewing credit files is useful. Participants should be comfortable with percentages, ratio calculations and spreadsheet-based analysis. The course assumes no prior formal credit qualification and does not require advanced financial modelling, statistics, programming, valuation expertise or prior experience in a bank. Participants may bring anonymised examples of their own credit documentation if permitted by their employer.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic financial statements and be comfortable with percentages and ratio calculations. Prior lending or credit experience is helpful but no formal credit qualification is required.

Bring a calculator and, for live online delivery, access to a spreadsheet application. You may bring anonymised financial statements, credit papers or facility terms if your employer permits this.

It suits credit analysts, commercial bankers, relationship managers, underwriters, risk officers and finance professionals who prepare or review borrower assessments. It is intended for professionals with some exposure to financial information rather than complete beginners.

This course focuses on lending decisions: repayment capacity, risk assessment, facility structure, covenants, security and ongoing monitoring. Financial modelling and corporate finance courses usually place greater emphasis on valuation, transactions or investment appraisal.

You can use the spreading approach, cash-flow assessment model, memorandum structure and monitoring schedule when reviewing your next borrower or counterparty. The methods also help you challenge proposals prepared by colleagues or relationship teams.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is distributed across ten teaching modules, with technical instruction, case analysis, group discussion, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

Related courses in Banking & Insurance