Credit Support of Corporate Analyst

The genesis of Gulf African Bank (GAB) can be traced back to 2005, when a group of motivated Kenyans envisioned establishing an Islamic bank as an alternative to conventional banking in the country. By conducting business on the principles of Shari'ah, the bank would provide an ethical and fair mode of banking for all. Gulf African Bank is the first and largest Islamic Bank in Kenya and one of the fastest growing banks in the history of the banking sector of the country. The bank offers fully Shari'ah compliant products and services that address the needs of not just Muslims, but everyone in the country including individuals, corporate companies, and institutions. The bank was incorporated on August 9th, 2006 and started operations as a commercial bank in January 8th 2008, in a historic event, where it was granted the country’s first fully-fledged commercial banking license as a dedicated Islamic bank, by the Central Bank of Kenya.

Reports To: Senior Manager, Credit Support

Job Purpose:

The role of Credit Support-Corporate Analyst is to support the business team members- Assistant Relationship Managers and Relationship managers (RM) in their respective teams / region, to manage a high-quality portfolio of Commercial banking clients in a manner that complies with the Bank’s policies. (In line with Shariah and other banks, regulators policies).

Key Responsibilities

Credit facilities reviews, decisioning and portfolio management

A key part of the- Credit Support-Corporate Analyst role is to support the business team during the credit cycle. Specific responsibilities during the various stages of the credit cycle include:

Review of credit proposals

• Receive all the information and documentation required for a proposal from the Senior RMs and RMs to analyze for lending purposes.
• Assist Senior Relationship Managers and Relationship Managers review/confirm the submitted information and documentation through site visits and subsequent follow-up meetings/conversations—for adequacy, completeness, and compliance with all Bank requirements
• Prepare all the credit proposals and give recommendation and submit the same for review by RMs and team leader.
• Finalize the credit proposal by incorporating additional comments where necessary and recommendation and signing off prior to submission to credit.

Credit decision

• Respond to questions from the Credit department or Management Credit Committee for the submitted credit applications. RMs can assist the analyst by providing further information.
• Work closely with the business team members to ensure fulfillment of all conditions precedent to facility disbursement, and ensure that all the relevant documentation is in place
• To ensure zero returns of files from Credit due to documentation

Portfolio Management

• Prepare quarterly reviews on borrowing customers and update on covenant tracking whether met or not.
• Support the Relationship Manager and the business team to raise restructure requests where the client is facing challenges
• In the event of non-payment of a facility installment, ensure that the business team members – ARM and RM have contacted the client immediately, and, if not resolved, assist them in subsequent actions to recover credit in arrears according to Bank procedures.
• Monitor accounts in arrears and overdrawn accounts, work with the Assistant Relationship Managers, Relationship managers and relevant Bank staff to reduce the portfolio at risk and work with the Collections Unit to develop and implement recovery processes. This in turn will help to reduce the portfolio at risk
• Work closely with the business team in monitoring the asset portfolio to prevent defaults on client’s payment, alterations in the client’s business, and to be aware of forthcoming client’s financial needs.
•  Prepare early warning signs report for clients that have shown signs of distress for onward submission to Team leader and subsequent to Monitoring department. Ensure all Accounts with warning signs are promptly presented to early watch forum and need to ensure no client is transferred to DRU without at least 2 months on early watch forum and regular updates provided.
• Follow-up with business team on corrective action to follow on recovery of facilities as guided by the DRU Policy (e.g. the issuance of demand letters and transfer of files in due time to the DRU (Debt Recovery Unit).
• Proactively data mine and advise the business team early on clients which they can enhance facilities.
• Highlight all covenants for the borrowing client and update its status if met or not.
• Review of the quarterly facility reviews and ensure timely submission of the required documents same is done for all borrowing clients in the assigned portfolio.
•  Support the team leader in interrogating and providing Input on the Asset Pipeline from the Relationship Manager to ensure that bankable transactions are being on-boarded and in line with the Commercial Banking Strategy

Client Management

The Credit Support-Corporate Analyst will support the business team in the management of the client portfolios assigned to them. These will include the following tasks:

• Ensuring that all customer information and queries are treated in line with confidentiality agreements as per employment contract with the Bank and HR policies.
• Highlight to business on the early warning signs from the borrowing customers and recommendations on solutions.
•  Conduct quarterly visits for top 10 borrowing clients in the assigned portfolio to preparing a comprehensive call report to be attached to the quarterly review of the client.

Operations/Compliance

The Credit Support-Corporate Analyst   would:

• Ensure that all facility reviewed have complete client documentation —this is especially important to ensure timely disbursement of facilities
• Ensuring that Shariah-related, Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and other policies are adhered to for all facility reviewed by the analyst
•  Capturing and updating facility applications in the relevant systems including Credit Quest, Pipeline Management Tool, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, among others.
• All documents should be well uploaded in CQ and categorized in a correct manner

Required Competencies (Knowledge, Skills & Abilities)

Qualifications And Experience

• Business graduate from an accredited university preferably with a major in Finance, Marketing and/or Economics. Professional qualification such as CPA, CFA will be an added advantage.
• Proven experience of at least two (2) years in a similar position, with hands on experience in managing a portfolio of clients and analyzing business proposals.

Functional Competencies

Credit skills

• Ability to prepare financing proposals
• Ability to analyze balance sheet and profit & Loss statements
• Ability to do cash flow analysis,
• Knowledge of business segments and economic/industry  sectors and risks relating to the segments
• Knowledge of relevant Shariah policies/ processes
• Detailed knowledge of relevant Bank policies, e.g. Credit, KYC, AML

Business development skills

• A good understanding of the target market and growth opportunities
• Thorough knowledge of the Bank’s products and services
• Ability to monitor targets, use relevant information from dashboard to identify areas to focus on.