What Credit Analysts Are Really Looking For (And Why Most People Get It Wrong)
Many people think credit analysts are looking for “good deals.”
They’re not.
Instead, they’re looking for predictability under stress.
That’s why someone making $150k with volatile income can get rejected, while someone making $80k with stable income gets approved. It’s not about how much you make. It’s about how reliable your ability to repay is when things don’t go perfectly.
What analysts are really doing is stress-testing the deal. They’re asking questions most borrowers never think about: What happens if revenue drops 20%? What if rates increase? If the borrower’s business hits a rough patch? This is where concepts like DSCR, income consistency, and leverage matter more than just raw income. The bank doesn’t judge a deal based on how good it looks today — it judges deals by how well it can survive tomorrow.
But here’s what most people still miss…
Even understanding these factors isn’t enough if you don’t know how they’re actually applied inside a real credit decision.
If you want to think like a credit analyst, not just sound like one, I broke down the full step-by-step decision process, including real deal logic, here: