Description: The Lending Decision Process is designed to teach the analytical and decision-making techniques needed to make sound credit decisions using financial accounting, financial statement analysis and cash flow analysis. 

The six parts of The Lending Decision Process will provide learners with a foundation in the following areas of study: Business and industry risk analysis, Management assessment, Financial accounting, Balance sheet and income statement analyses, Ratio trend analysis, Cash cycle and seasonality analysis, Borrowing causes and repayment source assessment, Cash flow analysis and Using financial projections.

The Lending Decision Process and the courses in the curriculum are products of The Risk Management Association.

Duration: There are 17 courses included in the complete Lending Decision Process Series. Approximate time to complete all courses and modules in the curriculum is between 35 to 50 hours.

Audience: The Lending Decision Process is designed to be the building block to a strong credit core curriculum for loan trainees, credit analysts, and anyone with commercial lending authority.

Learning Objectives: After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Interpret repayment risks related to industry, economic, market and management factors
• Interpret risks stemming from the quality of financial reports and underlying financial accounts.
• Interpret repayment risks suggested by the company’s historical financial performance and financial condition, applying balance sheet and income statement measures to analyze liquidity, leverage, profitability, financial productivity, and efficiency.
• Interpret repayment risks related to a company’s cash cycle and seasonal characteristics, interpreting both long- and short-term borrowing causes and related repayment sources.
• Analyze cash flow statements and traditional debt service coverage measures to interpret cash flow repayment risks.
• Interpret future ability to repay debt by constructing and analyzing financial projections, evaluating margins of protection in business, industry or management risks

The courses included in The Lending Decision Process Curriculum are:

• Series 1: Evaluating Industry, Markets and Management
• Series 2: Evaluating Quality of the Borrower’s Financial Reports
• Series 3: Analyzing the Company’s Financial Performance and Financial Condition
• Series 4: The Cash Cycle, Seasonality and Discovering Borrowing Causes and Repayment Sources
• Series 5: Analyzing Cash Flow Statement and Measuring Repayment Ability
• Series 6: The Cash Cycle and Seasonality