Just a quick question, I have a guy interested in pursuing a career as a Credit Analyst - what is the benchmark certification? I mean what is the industry standard?
Credit analyst often gets used in different senses. Do you mean a sell side publishing (or desk) analyst? or a credit risk analyst (counterparty)? For the former, very much the same as equity roles: CFA, MBA, etc… for the latter, no clue.
Thanks FIAnalyst. I think the dude is targetting a credit risk analyst role in a bank.
A buddy of mine is a credit analyst with a bank, he got into the gig with his MBA.
Banks love Risk Management Association (RMA) classes and often will look for someone with classes or formal credit training. Few banks have formal credit training programs any longer. He can just highlight accounting courses, financial analysis, as well as general finance courses. As long as he knows how to read a financial statement, the cash conversion cycle, and general business terms, such as S vs C corp, he’ll be fine. There is a certification, though not really popular and few people I know of have this certification. RMA has a certification called Credit Risk Certification that it is attempting to popularize. NYU has an intensive credit training program taught a couple times a year for five days which is helpful and at least will show his interest in that area.
Omega Performance offers some credit training as well. Thread about this a while back.
I work as a credit analyst on the lending side. No you don’t need CFA and I doubt there is a good certification for this gig. You may look into FRM if you want to go into the risk management. Having an MBA may help later when you become a relationship manager. My bank is one of the few that still offers formal credit traning, whatever that means. But anyone with CFA will find this formal credit $hit a cake walk and a waste of time.
^Interesting…lot of my firm’s internal job posting requires “formal credit training”, I have my CFA charter, I thought I didn’t qualify.
ws Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ^Interesting…lot of my firm’s internal job > posting requires “formal credit training”, I have > my CFA charter, I thought I didn’t qualify. Most good credit jobs require FCT, even at banks that don’t offer the training. Obviously training is one of the first things to go when things turn red. I found FCT at my bank to be about on par in difficulty with L1/L2 FSA, but definitely more in depth, with sensitivity analysis, loan structuring, etc.
I went through my training last year and in my opinion CFA is much more difficult than the formal credit training. But then again a lot of people in the lending business don’t know what CFA is and that is why formal credit training may carry more weight.
“formal credit training” I see that as a requirement in credit analyst positions for banks.
$tarving_Banker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I went through my training last year and in my > opinion CFA is much more difficult than the formal > credit training. But then again a lot of people in > the lending business don’t know what CFA is and > that is why formal credit training may carry more > weight. CFA and formal credit training are no more comparable in content than CFA and MBA, CPA, FRM, what-have-you. Banks hiring lenders or credit analysts are looking for that specific skill.
Of course they are very different. Hell, fixed income investing is very different from equity investing. But CFA covers several topics that are extremely very helpful (FSA on both L1 and L2, Corp Fin, etc) to a credit analyst and I don’t think tons of people in lending realize that, based on personal experience. And I would say my credit training is less challenging compared to the CFA exams. But then again, this is probably more reflective of my bank’s credit training program, rather than formal credit training as a whole. But I do know at least 4 bankers in my dept who attempted CFA and couldn’t pass L1. Anyways, don’t mean to start a CFA vs. credit training thread. I will stop here.
I am a credit analyst for a bank, well just on co-op, but still in it. I was in my second year of BBA when i got the co-op…not tooo hard to get in…but positions are limited and need to know people… or be lucky like me…lol
I know a ton of people with formal credit training, it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere I wish to go judging from the jobs they end up at. More main street finance than capital markets really, but if you want to get into commercial lending go for it. The nightmare of every iBanker is to be a cBanker though, so be aware you are making a career decision. Agreed on the fact few banks offer formal credit training. I used to work in that type of banking and employers would always ask if I had it, I would always reply by asking if they offered it. No one ever said yes to offering it; didnt know there was a cert for it. That industry badly needs it judging by the lack of interest in actually training people. I do think one reason the current downturn has been so rough is the reliance of so many companies on cap markets. The ibankers were awesome this cycle at getting just about every company involved in cap mkts for their financing; for a time there I thought c banks were going the way of the dodo.
Hey $tarving_Banker, what credit classes did you take~omega, FAP, etc.?