How To Become A Credit Risk Analyst: What It Is and Career Path

What is a credit risk analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A credit analyst is a financial professional who reviews and assesses the financial history of a person or organization to determine if they are good candidates for a loan. They assess the creditworthiness of individuals and companies. The roles of a credit risk analyst include the evaluation of financial data to determine the level of default risks and preparing a report for the client and the lender. It also includes the provision of recommendations tied to analysis and assessment of credit risk, presentation of analysis, findings, and recommendations to the manager. A credit analyst develops and prepares spreadsheets to support analysis of new and existing credit applications and keeps up to date with the company's lending protocols.

A credit risk analyst must have strong proficiency in MS office and general computer use. They must also have the ability to effectively manage deadlines for projects in a high-pressure work environment and pay attention to details to notice discrepancies in data. As a credit analyst, you must have an impeccable understanding of financial statements and concepts. A credit analyst usually has at least a bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, or related fields. On average, the credit risk analyst earns $78,000 per year.

ScoreCredit Risk AnalystUS Average

Salary

6.7

Avg. Salary $85,376

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 10.54%

Black or African American 7.65%

Hispanic or Latino 9.52%

Unknown 2.65%

White 69.37%

Gender

female 43.57%

male 56.43%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.4

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a credit risk analyst

Explore credit risk analyst education requirements

Most common credit risk analyst degrees

Bachelor's

70.0 %

Master's

20.1 %

Associate

5.8 %

Start to develop specific credit risk analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Risk Management	14.09%
SAS	9.22%
SQL	9.20%
Strong Analytical	4.70%
PowerPoint	4.42%

Complete relevant credit risk analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New credit risk analysts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a credit risk analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real credit risk analyst resumes.

Research credit risk analyst duties and responsibilities

Utilize data manipulation and quantitative analysis using VBA macros, SQL and advance excel knowledge to manage credit risk exposure.
Design and build portfolio management dashboard for senior management monthly credit strategy meetings using SAS.
Contribute significantly to credit portfolio analytics through integration of top-down macro risks with idiosyncratic issuer risks.
Perform monthly/quarterly operational functions supporting the SAS ETL processing to generate client profitability and performance measurement results.

Prepare your credit risk analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your credit risk analyst resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a credit risk analyst resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable credit risk analyst resume templates

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