Senior Credit Analyst

• A well-established company based in Melrose is seeking an astute, analytical, and commercially minded Senior Credit Analyst to join their team.
• This is an excellent opportunity for a finance professional skilled in evaluating risk, making sound lending decisions, and supporting quality credit outcomes in a dynamic environment.

Key responsibilities

• Assess new and existing clients, including the company, directors, shareholders, related entities and sureties.
• Go through financial statements, management accounts, bank statements, tax records, debtor and creditor lists, asset registers, contracts, cashflows and existing debt.
• Look at profitability, liquidity, debt levels, working capital and whether cash flow is steady.
• Work out whether the client can afford the new facility on top of what they already owe.
• Take note of arrears, returned debit orders, bad credit records, tax debt, too much debt and other signs of trouble.
• Conduct stress testing to assess the client's ability to withstand adverse financial scenarios, including declining sales, increased operating costs and delayed customer payments.
• Evaluate industry dynamics, key customer relationships, contractual obligations, management capabilities and trading history to determine the overall risk profile.
• Identify discrepancies, unusual transactions, inconsistencies or potentially misleading information within financial records and supporting documentation.
• Exercise independent judgement in assessing client creditworthiness and risk, ensuring that recommendations are based on a thorough, objective analysis of available information rather than relying solely on input from the marketing team.

Deal evaluation and structuring

• Evaluate deals in construction, mining, transport, agriculture, aviation, power generation and other approved sectors.
• Check whether the deal works commercially, whether it is asset finance, rental or rent-to-own.
• Recommend deposits, terms, instalments, interest rates, fees, balloons and security.
• Check that the instalment is affordable for the client's cash flow.
• Check that supplier quotes, purchase prices, valuations, expected rental income and resale values are reasonable.
• Consider VAT, costs, commissions, funding costs and likely recovery costs when working out profit.
• Recommend ways to reduce risk, like bigger deposits, sureties, cessions of receivables, insurance and other enforceable security.
• Evaluate whether the anticipated returns justify the associated risks, investment term and capital commitment.
• Challenge proposed instalments, deposits, repayment terms and residual values where they do not adequately mitigate the company's financial risk.
• Suggest other ways to structure a deal so it can still work within the risk appetite.
• Escalate deals that look good commercially but have a credit structure we can't accept.

Asset and security evaluation

• Look at the asset itself: market value, condition, age, hours, specs and remaining life.
• Check that the asset suits the deal and that its value supports the amount we are funding.
• Know the difference between market value, orderly sale value and what we would really get in a forced sale.
• Consider how easy it is to resell specialised equipment like heavy construction, and mining machinery, aircraft etc.
• Take into account hours, maintenance history, obsolescence, location, transport costs, refurbishment and export restrictions.
• Check the supplier or dealer, and make sure descriptions, serial numbers, ownership details and quotes all match.
• Look out for existing liens, ownership disputes, double financing, insurance gaps and security we might not be able to enforce.
• Work with the Technical Manager or outside inspectors when we need an inspection, valuation or condition report.
• Ask for more collateral or lower our exposure when the value is uncertain or recovery looks weak.
• Always consider both whether the client can pay and what we would get back if they can't.

Credit reports and recommendations

• Write clear, accurate credit reports for the approving authority or credit committee.
• Cover the deal, the client, financial performance, ability to pay, security, profitability and risks.
• Keep verified facts, what management told us, assumptions and open questions separate.
• Clearly communicate key risks and concerns in the main assessment, rather than relying solely on supporting schedules.
• Make a clear recommendation: approve, decline, defer or ask for more information.
• If recommending approval, state the terms, conditions precedent, security and any monitoring needed.
• Show a way to reduce each major risk and be honest about what risk is left.
• Review the junior analysts' reports and send back anything incomplete, wrong or poorly motivated.
• Present and defend recommendations at credit meetings and answer management's questions.
• Keep a record of approval conditions, policy exceptions, outstanding items and why we made the recommendation.

Independent judgement and challenging risk

• Stay independent of sales pressure.
• Challenge forecasts that are too optimistic, revenue that isn't supported and customer contracts that haven't been verified.
• Question deals that look unaffordable, over-geared or reliant on uncertain future cash flow.
• Be more careful where the client's finances, industry or security call for it.
• Give marketers feedback on what is weak in their applications and what we need from them.
• Recommend a decline when the risk can't be reduced, no matter how attractive the deal looks.
• Escalate major risks, suspected misrepresentation, unusual related-party arrangements and conflicts of interest.
• Distinguish between applications requiring further information and those that do not meet the company's risk appetite or lending criteria
• Make sure policy exceptions are motivated, documented and sent to the right authority.

Quality control and technical review

• Be the first technical reviewer of the junior analysts' submissions, where delegated.
• Check that calculations, debt schedules, cash flow, affordability and terms are correct.
• Make sure all the material risks have been picked up and dealt with.
• Set consistent standards for credit reports, analysis, supporting documents and recommendations.
• Spot the same mistakes coming up in applications and give Sales feedback so they improve.
• Flag incomplete applications and follow up until the missing information is in.
• Review complex or high-value deals and help the juniors with the technical side.
• Apply credit policy the same way across analysts, business units and deal types.
• Look for ways to turn deals around faster without lowering quality.

Due diligence, compliance and documentation

• Make sure the required checks on the client, directors, shareholders and related entities are done, as policy and the law require.
• Check that the financial information and supporting documents are complete, consistent and reliable.
• Make sure FICA, NCR and any other regulatory requirements are covered for the product, entity and deal.
• Escalate bad findings, compliance concerns, possible fraud and big discrepancies.
• Make sure the credit recommendation lists the security documents, sureties, cessions, waivers and insurance we need.
• Work with Legal and Operations so the approved conditions end up in the deal documents.
• Make sure conditions are met, or formally waived by the right person, before payout.
• Keep full records of assessments, documents, approvals and exceptions for audit and future reference.

Portfolio monitoring and early warning

• Keep an eye on how the loan and rental book is performing, together with Finance, Collections and Operations.
• Review arrears, missed instalments, returned debit orders, broken payment arrangements and other signs a client is slipping.
• Pick out clients whose finances, trading conditions or payment behaviour point to a higher chance o