Creating Spread and updating previous spreads: In case for a new client, whose financial records has not

previously been entered into the system, I would be required to create new spread for specific clients based on the company financials provided. The process is provided below with appropriate figures: Log-in to CreditMate:
1. Approach CreditMate

Log in your ID and Password

CreditMate is an in-house software used commonly in Standard Chartered Bank. It is part of an initiative to improve the end-to-end credit process. It aims to improve the quality of data, ensure compliance to credit policies, and create standardised processes across customer segments and geographies. The improved processes translate to improved work-life for all. The currently improved version has the goal of such: Simplification of the credit initiation and approval process Replacement of multiple systems with one integrated, global system Reduction of turnaround times and drive better client service CreditMate, the new system, covers spreading, grading, pricing, Business Credit Application- BCA (preparation and approval) and issuance of BFLs. It is pre-populated with current scorecard and spread data, based on the following rules: Scorecards: Scorecards which have been approved or are in preparation within the last 18 months are migrated. All scorecards proposed within the last six months have been migrated. Spreads: All the MFA records with at least one spread beyond 31 December 2002 have been migrated. The initiative provides the tools to work smarter. The new processes and system are intuitive, simple, web-based, centralised and globally accessible. Everyone throughout the process Assistant Relationship Managers, Relationship Managers, Credit Analysts & Credit Approvers are benefitting from: Simplicity: one single system that automates, streamlines and consolidates all our work. Faster turnaround time: across all credit applications and approvals Solid data integrity: across all our businesses.

Searching for Clients: Clients name is inserted in the designated box to find the desired client on the software.
2. Search for clients

1. Click Activity > Manage Documents

2. import customers

Choosing Customer: The result may come up with multiple results, from which I would choose the desired customer.
3. (Choose Customer)

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Creating Spread: Once the desired customer appears on the screen, the software would also provide with Spread ID if any previous inputs exist, based on the financial data (provided by clients).
4. Create Spread

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New Spread: To create new spread, spread descriptions are required to fill in and the type of spread (Company/Division/Consolidated)
5. Create a new financial report, fill in the name of the financial statements and report options

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Spread-work: Standard Chartered bank uses Moodys Risk Analyst, an integrated software to record, update and monitor the financial data of their clients. Using the browser-based interface, the employees can spread core financial statement data and other qualitative data in a central database, based on various accounting standards or specific industries. Moodys Risk Analyst RiskAnalyst simplifies and standardizes the way firms collect, analyze and store credit data, laying the groundwork for sound internal credit practices for firms of all sizes across a widerange of industries. Risk Analyst is used to: Collect Financial and Qualitative Data - It creates efficiencies by standardizing the way the firm spreads financial and nonfinancial data - It minimizes data entry errors using one of industry-compliant financial templates - It obtains a comprehensive view of each customer across a wide-range of assets including company financials, real estate holdings, borrower financials and other pertinent data all in one location Analyze and Report - It improves accuracy and make better lending decisions by using dual-risk rating platform to calculate probability of default (PD), loss given default (LGD) and other credit risk metrics in one place - It saves time and reduce complexity by implementing standardized credit risk scorecards which outline rating decisions - It Improves business performance by embedding risk policies into structured risk management framework - It builds valuable financial projections and perform scenario analysis without any limitations on the use of historical data - It easily creates reports for a variety of audiences including analysts and senior management Store Data in a Centralized Database - It streamlines a banks credit decision process and helps to understand where the single obligor and transaction risk lie by having a single source for all data - It helps avoid data loss and redundancy - It reduces turn-around time for management, audit and regulatory inquiries

Entering reported figures: The Risk Analyst has three menus on the left column, historical, projection and report. All financial data are recorded in historical. In case of a new statement, a tab named insert statement is clicked, which then would prompt me for details regarding the statement, e.g. report type (qualified/unqualified), accountant name, the date of financial etc.
6. Click Historical
2.
Insert Statement

8. Enter the reported figures - (including balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity)

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Financial Projections: Projection is a vital part in companys strategic planning. Through projections, Standard Chartered bank further monitors its clients progress and growth. There are certain criteria based on which projections are made, varying from company to company. Examples of projections would be for a company to set to project a Cost of goods sold to be 70% of sales in its upcoming year. I would be given clients projection values to update in the risk analyst and set the certain criteria as advised, from which the software would itself fill in certain calculated values.

Report: This part of the Risk Analyst is what I have worked most frequently with. After inserting all the necessary values from the clients financial (annual/quarterly) reports and making sure they are all balanced properly, my next task would be to acquire financial ratio figures based on the inserted financials. The ratios are generated automatically by the integrated software and I have the option of choosing the number of financial years I want to compare it with (generally, three most recent fiscal years of a company).

Publish Summary: Once the financial information is archived accurately it needs to be published to be able to use it for Business Credit Application (BCA). I would usually verify the inputs with one of my peers and then publish it for future use.
9. Archive and Publish Summary

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Scorecard Scorecard is a system in creditmate, which is used to obtain credit grading of a client that generates based on certain criterions set by the bank to evaluate a company. It would require me to go through a series of steps in the creditmate to obtain the final credit grade (CG) that is later used in BCA and credit approval decision. The system evaluates and computes score based on both financial and non-financial information of a company.

Business Credit Application (BCA) Business Credit Application (BCA) is a document that allows a business to apply for credit privileges with a company. The information the business provides in a business credit application allows for an investigation into its credit worthiness. Standard Chartererds BCA are designed to facilitate better understanding of customers risk assessment and needs identification for both Relationship Manager (RMs) and the approvers. The application format gradually reduce re-work as they help RMs to present all the relevant information required for processing an application; approver queries if any should be gradually minimized if all sections of the format are filled in crisply.

A BCA usually consists of the following: Executive summary What is being requested? Why we want to do this? SCB scorecard: a credit grading provided for each company based on certain criterions and how a company satisfy those criterions.

Sources of repayment This includes details of a clients banking relationships with SCB and other banks, prioritizing as primary or secondary. Top 3 risks and risk monitoring strategy In this segment, the three key risks associated with banking with particular client are identified with additional Mitigant and risk monitoring strategy is provided.

Client Background This is a detailed report of the clients activities, market position and outlook, including any future plan that a client may have. This would also include organization chart, ownership/management, operating model, five major buyers & suppliers. Peer Analysis This is a competitive analysis between the client and its major competitor, including a brief industry overview. In this segment of BCA, comparisons are made in terms of financial ratios, productions and sales. This is a crucial scenario as it provides a scenario of how a client is doing in the market compared to other companies with similar business activities. Key Risks and Mitigant Some of the key components of this segment are industry risk analysis, business risk analysis, security risks, refinancing risks, management capability and succession planning, facility structure and capital alignments. The various risks are identified, assessed and discussed briefly for review. My most frequent task as an intern in standard chartered bank was to work on brief financial highlights of a company, which is part of this segment of the BCA. I would be required to write brief, yet insightful assessment of the changes in financial ratios of the client, acquired from the Risk Analyst software mentioned earlier. The portion is divided into three further components Sales & profitability, Liquidity, and Leverage. In each of the components, I would address the changes in related ratios and identify the reasons of such changes, followed by opinions on how well a company is performing based on the ratios and other internal and external factors effecting on them. Sales & profitability would usually have total sales, GP margin, COGS/Sales mentioned in it. Liquidity would contain assessments of a companys current ratio, liquidity ratio, net cash after operations (NCAO), net working cash cycle (NWCC) etc. Gearing portion would include debt ratios, leverage, gearing ratios etc. Additional comments, supporting information and recommendation This part of BCA is used to provide any additional information on the clients, such as projections, recommendations etc.

BCA is reviewed on a yearly basis. However, if any additional changes are needed to be updated, such as a clients facility structures, an interim BCA would be prepared in between a year.

Factory visit report Factory visit is part of the process in evaluating clients operational activities and granting credit approval. A general template is used to record information upon a visit to a clients factory. I have worked on such template to record information based on the notes taken by an associate of local corporate, while gathering additional information from the clients company websites.

Other activities Writing business letters to clients Using spreads to create database of clients Use of mail merge system to prepare labels of a large list of clients