Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The Credit Risk Intern's Field Manual

Spread the statements, write the memo, defend the rating. The skills the rotation handout never teaches.

Your spreads come back marked up. Your memos come back rewritten. Your rating recommendations get overridden. The handout the rotation lead gave you covers none of it.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

Credit risk rotations at US regional banks are sink-or-swim. You inherit a borrower book on day three, get pointed at a deal package on day five, and are expected to deliver a spreading workbook plus a credit memo by the end of week two. The rotation handout gives you templates, the senior associate gives you ten minutes, and the rest you learn by getting marked up. What separates the interns who get converted to full-time analyst from those who don't is the speed of that learning curve. The mechanical skills, how to spread an income statement so the audit trail survives a credit review, how to build fixed charge coverage so the FCC ratio matches the credit policy formula, how to structure covenant headroom commentary so a senior credit officer signs without rewriting, how to write watchlist updates that a risk committee will accept, are learnable in weeks not months when laid out as a procedure. This course is that procedure.

What you walk away with

Spread a commercial borrower's three-year financials in a format your bank's credit review accepts.
Draft a credit memo with the rating recommendation, covenant package, and cash flow narrative a senior credit officer signs first pass.
Build a fixed charge coverage and leverage covenant headroom analysis that ties to the credit policy formula.
Update a watchlist or special mention commentary that the credit risk committee accepts without rewriting.
Recognise the five EBITDA adjustments borrowers push that your bank will and will not accept.

The 12 modules

Module 1. What a credit memo actually does inside a bank

The credit memo is a legal record, a decision audit trail, and a covenant rationale. This module walks the lifecycle of a deal package from RM submission to credit committee approval, names every signoff in the chain, and shows the three sections of the memo a senior credit officer reads first. The worked example is a 12-page middle-market revolving credit memo with annotations on what every paragraph is doing.

Module 2. Spreading a commercial borrower the way your bank accepts

Every bank has a house spreading format with rules on revenue recognition, non-recurring item treatment, and operating lease handling under ASC 842. This module shows the canonical commercial bank spreading template, the rules for normalising three years of financials, and the audit trail conventions that survive a credit review pull. The worked example spreads a $150M revenue manufacturer through the full income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow.

Module 3. The five EBITDA adjustments borrowers push and which ones survive

Borrowers push pro forma EBITDA adjustments for synergies, run-rate cost saves, owner compensation normalisations, non-recurring items, and stock comp addbacks. Banks accept some, push back on others, and reject a third category outright. This module walks the bank credit policy view on each adjustment type, gives the boilerplate memo language for accepting or rejecting an adjustment, and shows the documentation footprint a credit reviewer will look for.

Module 4. Fixed charge coverage and leverage so the ratio survives review

Fixed charge coverage and total leverage are the two ratios that drive most middle-market covenant packages and most rating committee discussions. The trap is that the formula in the credit agreement is rarely the formula in the bank's credit policy. This module walks both formulas, names the line-item adjustments that move FCC and leverage by half a turn, and shows how to document the calculation so a reviewer can rebuild it from the workbook.

Module 5. Covenant headroom commentary that gets signed

Covenant headroom analysis is not a number, it is a narrative. A 1.4x FCC against a 1.25x covenant is fine on paper and is a watchlist trigger inside the bank if the borrower's trailing trend is down. This module shows the four-quadrant framework senior credit officers actually use, the boilerplate commentary for each quadrant, and the documentation a senior credit officer wants to see before signing the memo without rewriting it.

Module 6. Recommending a risk rating that gets defended

Risk rating recommendations from interns and first-year analysts get overridden roughly half the time. The override is rarely about the underlying numbers. It is about how the recommendation is framed against the rating committee's house view of the obligor's industry, collateral package, and qualitative factors. This module walks the dual-rating system most US regional banks use, the qualitative factor template, and the rating recommendation memo language that gets defended at committee.

Module 7. Watchlist and special mention commentary the risk committee accepts

Watchlist updates are the most-read and least-taught artefact on a credit risk desk. They go to the risk committee, the regulators see them in the next exam, and the credit officer's career rides on them. This module walks the structure of a watchlist memo, the four reasons a borrower lands on the list, the trend commentary that senior credit officers want at the top, and the path off the list with action items the RM and credit risk both sign.

Module 8. Reading an audit opinion and a 10-K that signal risk

Auditor going-concern modifications, material weakness disclosures, subsequent event paragraphs, and audit committee changes are the four audit-opinion signals that change a borrower's risk rating. This module walks each one, shows the language to look for, gives the boilerplate memo treatment, and walks a 10-K reading procedure that surfaces the three risk disclosures that matter to a credit officer in under 20 minutes.

Module 9. Industry analysis a credit officer accepts

Industry analysis sections in intern-written memos read like a research report. Industry analysis sections in approved memos read like a credit officer wrote them. The difference is concrete: cycle position with named drivers, the two or three competitive dynamics that move EBITDA margins by 200 bps, the regulatory exposure that is one rulemaking from changing the model. This module walks the canonical industry section for five common middle-market sectors and gives the source list that holds up in committee.

Module 10. Collateral, structure, and the loss given default narrative

Loss given default modelling on commercial credits is mostly collateral analysis and structural protection analysis. This module walks the canonical bank treatment of accounts receivable, inventory, fixed assets, and intangibles as collateral, the haircuts your bank applies, the perfection requirements, and how the structural protections, guarantees, springing liens, and material adverse change clauses, feed the LGD narrative in the memo.

Module 11. Stress testing and downside scenarios a senior credit officer signs

Stress test scenarios in intern-written memos tend to be a single revenue-decline case. Stress tests in approved memos run three named scenarios with explicit assumption sets, the resulting FCC and leverage under each, and the covenant trigger point for each scenario. This module walks the three-scenario framework, names the assumption library most regional banks use, and shows the documentation a senior credit officer wants to see before signing the memo.

Module 12. From rotation to full-time conversion

The mechanical skills get the memo signed. The conversion to full-time analyst is also about visibility: which deals to ask for, which committees to attend, which artefacts get noticed by the credit officer who will write your conversion recommendation. This module walks the 90-day plan for a credit risk intern targeting full-time conversion, the deal mix to ask for, the senior credit officer relationships that matter, and the conversion memo template a hiring manager wants to see.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Day five of rotation, deal package on your desk, two-week deadline for the spreading workbook and credit memo.

First markup back from the VP showing red ink on EBITDA adjustments and the FCC formula.

Risk rating recommendation overridden at credit committee with a one-line note from the credit officer.

End of rotation conversion conversation with the credit risk hiring manager.

What you get with this course

12 written modules with worked examples, downloadable spreading workbook, downloadable memo template, downloadable rating recommendation sheet, downloadable watchlist commentary template, downloadable covenant headroom workbook.
Hand-built implementation playbook tuned to your specific deal mix and bank credit policy conventions, delivered alongside course access.
Lifetime access to course updates as bank credit policy conventions and regulatory expectations shift.
30-day satisfaction guarantee.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Within 24 hours: account provisioned in the Art of Service learning environment.

Within 24 hours: hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, tuned to your specific deal mix and bank credit policy conventions.

Self-paced: 12 modules, roughly 8 to 12 hours of working through worked examples and templates.

Before and after

Before

Spreads come back marked up. Memos come back rewritten. Rating recommendations get overridden. The rotation handout gives you templates and nobody walks you through why the senior credit officer keeps pushing back.

After

Memos get signed first pass. Rating recommendations hold at committee. Watchlist commentary gets accepted without rewriting. The credit risk hiring manager has a paper trail of approved artefacts to point at when the conversion conversation lands.

What happens if you do not address this

Credit risk internships convert to full-time analyst roles roughly half the time at US regional banks. The differentiator is the speed of the learning curve in the first 12 weeks. Interns who spend nine months stumbling through borrowed templates rarely get the conversion. The mechanical skills are learnable in weeks when laid out as a procedure.

Who it is for

Credit risk management interns, summer associates, and first-year analysts at US regional and super-regional banks. You are spreading commercial and middle-market borrower financials, drafting credit memos, recommending risk ratings, and updating covenant monitoring schedules. You are expected to know LBO mechanics, you are expected to read an audit opinion, you are expected to spot an EBITDA adjustment the borrower is pushing. Nobody is going to teach you any of that on the desk.

Who this is NOT for. Not for senior credit officers, portfolio managers, or risk committee members. Not for retail or consumer credit roles. Not for credit hedge fund analysts or distressed debt teams. The frame is bank credit risk on commercial and middle-market exposures, written for a learner in the first 12 months of the role.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable spreading workbook, memo template, rating recommendation sheet, covenant headroom workbook, and watchlist commentary template for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Roughly 8 to 12 hours of self-paced reading and working through templates. Most learners run through one module per evening across two weeks while applying the techniques to live deal packages on the desk.

Why $199 is the right number

The CFA reading list covers credit analysis at a graduate-textbook level and never touches bank-specific spreading conventions, house EBITDA adjustment treatments, or covenant headroom commentary. Moody's Analytics and S&P training courses cost ten times this price and cover external rating agency methodology, not internal bank credit risk workflow. The bank's own training library covers the policy manual and not the working skill of writing a memo a senior credit officer signs. This course sits at the intern's actual desk and walks the procedure.

FAQ

Is this written for a specific bank's credit policy?

The course covers the canonical US regional and super-regional bank conventions on spreading, covenant packages, risk rating systems, and watchlist commentary. The hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access is tuned to your specific bank credit policy conventions.

I have not finished my finance degree yet. Will I follow this?

Yes. The course assumes you can read an income statement and a balance sheet. Every analytical technique is walked from first principles with a worked example. If you have completed an intermediate accounting course, you have the prerequisite.

Does this cover consumer or retail credit?

No. The frame is bank commercial and middle-market credit risk. Consumer credit underwriting, retail scoring, and credit card portfolio risk are a different methodology and not covered.

How current is the regulatory content?

Current to the most recent OCC, FRB, and FDIC interagency credit risk review guidance. Lifetime updates are included as guidance shifts.

Can I expense this through my bank's tuition reimbursement?

Most US regional bank tuition reimbursement programmes cover external credit risk training that supports the role. A receipt and course outline are provided for the reimbursement form.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.