Credit Risk Career? Is that for you?

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After the 2008 financial crisis, the focus on high-quality lending and investment have become increasingly important and with that, the role of credit risk analyst.

What does a credit risk analyst do?

Credit risk analyst normally works in the lending and credit apartments of commercial banks, credit card companies or other financial firms. Typically, their role involves reviewing and assessing potential customers’ or a firms’ creditworthiness to discover how much of a risk they posed to the bank and monitoring the credit performance of existing customers.

If you have learnt solid skills in diligence, quantitative analysis, and computer programming through your education and work experience, then a career in credit risk can be a good fit for you.

What skills are required in credit risk analyst?

  • A bachelor’s or master’s in a relevant numeric discipline such as Maths, Statistics or Finance and accounting are normally required.
  • Solid knowledge of finance such as accounting, economics, industry statements and financial statement analysis.
  • Diligence: Check if the information provided is correct or if there is any missing information.
  • Quantitative analysis: how to analyse a large chunk of customers’ or firms’ data to form a decision.
  • Written and Oral Communication Skills – Most part of credit analysts career requires presenting the analysis to the team, client or publish a report. Thus, clear written and oral communication skills are a must.
  • More senior roles may require additional certificates such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or Financial Risk Manager(FRM)
  • Financial Software such as Microsoft Excel or proficiency in programming SAS can be beneficial.

What is the salary range for credit risk analysts?

For graduate roles, the salary can range from £27,000 to £33,000 plus bonus. With a few years of experience, you can be promoted to senior credit analyst with the median salary of £55,346 (according to Adzuna). Later into their career, a credit risk analyst can be promoted into CRO (Credit Risk Officer) with a salary up to £200,000.

For most current Credit Risk roles with Mana Search, check out our website or contact Dan for more advice on analytics career.