Analyzing credit means balancing speed and rigor. Too fast and risk explodes. Too slow and the customer walks away. The challenge for every fintech, credit union, or lending institution is the same: how to build a credit analysis process that is fast, traceable, and compliant with regulatory requirements?
The answer lies in standardization. When each analyst follows a different flow, when documents get lost between emails, and when there is no clear record of who approved what, the problem is not lack of competence. It is lack of structure.
This article presents a complete credit analysis template in 5 stages, ready to be adapted to your operation. For each stage: required fields, suggested SLA, automations, and regulatory considerations.
Why standardize credit analysis
Before the template, it is worth understanding what you gain from standardization:
- Consistency: every request goes through the same checks, regardless of the analyst
- Speed: clear stages eliminate time wasted wondering "what to do now"
- Traceability: every decision is recorded in the timeline, with date, author, and justification
- Compliance: financial regulators require auditable records of credit operations. A structured process meets this requirement naturally
- Scale: what works for 50 analyses per month works for 500, without reinventing the process
The 5 stages of the template
Stage 1: Registration and intake
The process begins when the credit request arrives. The goal is to collect all basic information about the applicant and the operation.
Required fields - Applicant tax ID (individual or corporate) - Full name or company name - Requested amount - Credit purpose (working capital, investment, receivables advance, personal loan) - Proven monthly income (individual) or monthly revenue (corporate) - Desired term (months) - Contact information (phone, email)
Suggested SLA: 4 business hours to complete registration after receiving the request.
Automations - On case creation, send external form to the applicant for data entry - Automatic tax ID validation (format and check digit) - Notify assigned analyst when the form is completed
Stage 2: Document collection
With registration complete, the next step is gathering the documentation that supports the analysis.
Required documents — Individual - Proof of income (last 3 months): pay stub, tax return, or bank statement - Bank statements for the last 90 days - Updated proof of address - Government-issued ID
Required documents — Corporate - Articles of incorporation and latest amendments - Balance sheet and income statement from the last fiscal year - Bank statements for the last 90 days (business account) - Tax clearance certificates - Revenue for the last 12 months
Required checks - Credit bureau score and restrictions - Financial pending records - Protest certificates - Civil and enforcement action certificates
Suggested SLA: 48 business hours for complete collection. For operations above a defined threshold, consider an extended 72-hour deadline.
Automations - On stage entry, send document request to applicant via external form - Automatic reminder if documents are not submitted within 24 hours - Notify analyst when all required documents are attached
Stage 3: Scoring and analysis
This is the core stage. Here, risk is effectively assessed.
Automatic scoring - Calculate an internal score combining: credit bureau score, income commitment, relationship history (if returning customer), time in business (corporate), and requested amount vs. payment capacity - Define automatic decision ranges: - High score (above 750): automatic approval up to predefined limit - Medium score (500-749): proceeds to manual analysis - Low score (below 500): automatic denial with appeal option
Manual analysis - For borderline cases or high-value operations, the analyst records a technical assessment with: - Payment capacity evaluation - Credit history analysis - Collateral verification - Reasoned recommendation (approve, condition, or deny)
Suggested SLA: 24 business hours for automatic scoring plus analyst assessment.
Automations - On stage entry, run automatic scoring based on collected data - If high score and amount within limit, advance automatically to formalization (skip committee) - If low score, record automatic denial and notify applicant - For manual analysis, assign to the corresponding portfolio analyst
Stage 4: Credit committee
Operations not automatically approved go through the credit committee.
Possible decisions - Full approval: operation approved as requested - Conditional approval: approved with conditions (reduced amount, shorter term, additional collateral, adjusted rate) - Denial: operation denied, with mandatory justification
Approval authority by amount - Up to a low threshold: senior analyst (individual approval) - Mid-range: credit manager - Upper-range: credit committee (minimum 2 members) - Top tier: executive committee
Suggested SLA: 48 business hours. For top-tier operations, 5 business days.
Automations - On stage entry, notify committee members according to authority level - If conditional approval, generate task for analyst to communicate conditions to applicant - If denial, send notification to applicant with appeal deadline (when applicable) - Record each committee member's vote in the timeline
Stage 5: Formalization
With approval in hand, the final step is formalizing the operation.
Formalization documents - Credit agreement or promissory instrument - Terms and conditions acknowledgment - Updated registration form - Collateral instrument (when applicable): fiduciary assignment, pledge, surety
Digital signature - Collect digital signature from applicant (and guarantors, if any) - Validate digital certificate or electronic signature per applicable regulations
Registration - Register real guarantees at the competent registry - Register the operation in the central credit information system
Suggested SLA: 72 business hours for complete formalization.
Automations - On stage entry, automatically generate contract draft with case data - Send contract for digital signature via external form - After signature, generate task for credit system registration - On registration completion, mark case as finalized
Compliance and audit trail
Credit analysis is one of the most regulated operations in the financial system. The template must meet specific requirements:
- Maintain records of all credit operations for at least 5 years
- Document analysis and decision criteria
- Register operations in the credit information system per regulatory deadlines
- Verify applicant against restricted lists (politically exposed persons, sanctions lists)
- For atypical operations, generate internal alerts
- Maintain records of all anti-money laundering checks performed
Each stage of the template generates automatic records in the timeline: who did what, when, and why. Documents have version control. Committee decisions are recorded with individual votes. Alerts are recorded as case events.
Adapting to your operation
The template covers the most common scenario, but each operation has particularities:
- Payroll-deducted credit: add fields for employee ID and deductible margin
- Agricultural credit: include an inspection stage and technical report
- Receivables advance: replace income analysis with receivables portfolio analysis
- Microcredit: simplify document collection as permitted by regulation
The important thing is to maintain the 5-stage structure. It ensures no essential check is skipped, regardless of the modality.
Getting started
CaseFy offers this credit analysis template ready to use. You configure the fields according to your credit policy, define committee authorities, activate automations, and start operating.
Instead of building control spreadsheets, exchanging emails with documents, and keeping committee minutes in separate folders, you have a unified process where each operation is a traceable case from start to finish.