Credit Risk Assessment for Corporate Credit Analysts Training Course

Course overview

Corporate credit analysts must form defensible lending recommendations from incomplete information, uneven management forecasts, changing sector conditions, and financial statements that may conceal emerging pressure on cash flow or covenant headroom. This course addresses the practical judgement required to assess a corporate borrower’s capacity and willingness to repay, translate analysis into an internal risk grade, and explain the recommendation clearly to credit committees, relationship managers, and portfolio teams. Participants work with the evidence and decision points that shape real corporate credit approvals.

The course develops a structured approach to borrower assessment, beginning with business-model and industry risk, then moving through financial statement spreading, cash-flow analysis, leverage, liquidity, coverage ratios, working-capital trends, and debt-structure review. Participants learn to normalize EBITDA, identify non-recurring items, reconcile profit with operating cash flow, assess debt service capacity, build downside cases, and test financial covenants. They also apply qualitative risk assessment, including management quality, ownership, governance, customer concentration, supplier dependency, and refinancing risk, before assigning an indicative internal credit rating.

Teaching combines instructor-led technical sessions with spreadsheet-based analysis of a corporate borrower case. Participants analyse a multi-year financial pack, management projections, debt terms, and sector information; challenge assumptions; and prepare a concise credit memorandum. The final deliverable is a committee-ready borrower assessment containing ratio analysis, cash-flow findings, risk mitigants, covenant recommendations, downside sensitivity results, and a justified credit decision. Participants receive a certificate on completion and can use the templates and analytical framework immediately in underwriting, annual review, renewal, and monitoring work.

The course is best suited to analysts who already work with corporate financial information and need a more rigorous, repeatable method for producing credit recommendations that stand up to review.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Spread corporate financial statements into an analytical format that supports trend and ratio analysis
• Normalize EBITDA and operating cash flow by identifying non-recurring and non-cash items
• Calculate and interpret leverage, liquidity, coverage, profitability, and working-capital ratios
• Assess debt service capacity using cash-flow conversion, debt maturity, and refinancing analysis
• Build downside sensitivity cases for revenue, margin, working capital, interest expense, and covenant headroom
• Evaluate qualitative borrower risks using business-model, industry, management, ownership, and governance criteria
• Assign an indicative internal credit rating using a structured quantitative and qualitative scorecard
• Produce a committee-ready credit memorandum with a recommendation, conditions, covenants, and monitoring triggers

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Corporate Credit Analysts — who prepare borrower assessments and recommendations for lending decisions
• Credit Risk Analysts — who challenge risk grades, financial assumptions, and proposed credit structures
• Commercial Banking Analysts — who support relationship teams with borrower analysis and annual reviews
• Credit Underwriters — who need to assess repayment capacity and document approval conditions
• Portfolio Managers — who monitor obligor performance, concentration risk, and early-warning indicators
• Relationship Managers — who need to present lending proposals with credible financial risk analysis

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with corporate financial statements, including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement, and should understand basic accounting terms such as revenue, EBITDA, depreciation, working capital, debt, and equity. Experience preparing credit papers, lending proposals, annual reviews, or financial analysis is helpful. Participants should be comfortable using Microsoft Excel for formulas, tables, and simple charts. Prior experience with formal internal rating systems, IFRS 9 expected credit loss modelling, programming, or advanced valuation is not required; these areas are addressed only where they inform a corporate credit decision.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings followed by guided analysis of a realistic corporate borrower. Participants spread financial statements in Microsoft Excel, calculate and interpret ratios, reconcile EBITDA to cash flow, and test management projections against downside assumptions. Small groups debate qualitative risks, proposed covenants, and an internal rating before defending a lending recommendation in a simulated credit-committee discussion. Each day closes with a practical output that feeds the final credit memorandum. The final session includes individual application planning for participants’ own underwriting, review, or monitoring responsibilities.

Course outline

Day 1: Credit judgement and borrower business risk

• Corporate credit decision framework and sources of repayment
• Business-model analysis and cash-generation drivers
• Industry cyclicality, competitive position, and sector risk
• Management quality, ownership structure, and governance assessment
• Credit information requirements and borrower due diligence
• Financial statement reliability and accounting red flags
• Internal risk grading principles and rating migration

Workshop: Analyse a borrower profile and sector briefing to produce a qualitative risk map and preliminary information request list.

Day 2: Financial statement analysis and ratio diagnosis

• Income statement spreading and revenue-quality analysis
• Balance sheet spreading and capital-structure review
• Cash-flow statement analysis and EBITDA-to-cash conversion
• EBITDA normalization and treatment of exceptional items
• Working-capital cycle analysis using days metrics
• Leverage, liquidity, profitability, and coverage ratios
• Trend analysis, peer comparison, and financial red flags

Workshop: Spread three years of borrower accounts in Excel and produce a ratio dashboard with written findings on earnings, liquidity, and leverage.

Day 3: Repayment capacity and debt structure

• Operating cash flow versus accounting profit
• Free cash flow calculation and capital expenditure analysis
• Debt schedule construction and maturity-wall assessment
• Interest burden, debt service coverage, and fixed-charge coverage
• Revolving facilities, term loans, overdrafts, and contingent liabilities
• Security, guarantees, subordination, and structural priority
• Refinancing risk and sources-and-uses analysis

Workshop: Build a debt-service capacity assessment for the case borrower and identify whether projected cash generation supports the proposed facility.

Day 4: Stress testing, covenants, and credit structuring

• Forecast credibility testing and management-assumption challenge
• Revenue, margin, working-capital, and interest-rate sensitivities
• Downside case construction and liquidity runway analysis
• Financial covenant selection and definition drafting
• Covenant headroom calculation and cure-right considerations
• Conditions precedent, drawdown controls, and reporting requirements
• Early-warning indicators and portfolio monitoring triggers

Workshop: Stress the borrower forecast in Excel and draft covenant levels, reporting requirements, and escalation triggers for a proposed facility.

Day 5: Credit recommendation and committee communication

• Integrating quantitative and qualitative findings into a risk view
• Indicative internal rating scorecard application
• Credit memorandum structure and evidence hierarchy
• Writing the executive recommendation and key risk summary
• Linking mitigants to conditions, covenants, and pricing considerations
• Anticipating credit committee challenge questions
• Post-approval monitoring and annual review planning

Workshop: Prepare and defend a committee-ready credit memorandum that recommends approval, decline, or conditional approval for the case borrower.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, IFRS 9, Basel III, S&P Capital IQ

A typical training day

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

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions