• Starweaver Logo
New

Foundations of Corporate Credit Risk Analysis

Get ahead in finance with credit risk skills to spot financial red flags, make smarter decisions, and protect your business.

Headshot of instructor Simon Paul Green over a finance-themed background with the word “RISK”, symbolising credit risk analysis.

Foundations of Corporate Credit Risk Analysis

  • 2 weeks

  • 2 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Open level

Find out more about how to join this course

Build credit risk expertise with hands-on financial analysis

Credit risk is at the heart of smart lending and sound financial decisions. By learning how to assess a company’s ability to repay debt, you can better protect businesses—and advance your career.

This two-week course, designed to fit around your schedule, will give you the ins-and-outs of corporate credit risk analysis, from evaluating financial statements to understanding business risks.

By the course’s end, you’ll have the confidence to spot financial warning signs and make well-informed credit decisions that support the financial health of your organisation.

Grasp credit risk fundamentals

Begin by exploring the core concepts of credit risk and why they matter to businesses and financial institutions. You’ll learn how credit risk fits into lending decisions and the broader financial ecosystem.

This week also covers key financial ratios, cash flow analysis, and common pitfalls in assessing creditworthiness, giving you a solid foundation to build on.

Evaluate financial statements with confidence

On this course, you’ll dive into the practical skills needed to interpret balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.

You’ll learn to identify signs of financial distress and understand how different industries impact credit risk profiles.

Understand business risks and mitigation strategies

Next, you’ll expand your knowledge by examining external and internal risks that affect a company’s ability to repay debt. This includes market conditions, operational challenges, and management quality.

You’ll also explore how lenders manage risk through credit limits, covenants, and monitoring, equipping you to recommend effective risk controls.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Foundations of Corporate Credit Risk Analysis

    • Lesson 1: Introduction

      This section provides an overview of the course, its goals, and tips to maximise your learning experience.

    • Lesson 2: Credit Risk Analysis Fundamentals

      This section looks at the risk analysis framework and how it then breaks down into the risk process and analytical structure before examining the first type of risk business risk

    • Lesson 3: Financial Risk Analysis Part 1 – Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet

      This section is a systematic ‘walk through of the profit and loss account and balance sheet to establish what are the credit issues we need to address.

  • Week 2

    Management Assessment, Mitigation & Credit Conclusions

    • Lesson 4: Financial Risk Analysis Part 3 - Ratio Analysis, Cash Flow & Liquidity

      How we can use ratios and a structure for ratio analysis based upon a company’s functional areas of activity, the construction and analysis of a company’s cash flow and an assessment of the strength of its overall liquidity.

    • Lesson 5: Management Assessment, Liquidity and Credit Mitigation

      Guidelines on how to assess a company’s management in order to be able rate the management from very strong through to weak using the management evaluation tool. Having worked through the various components of the credit and risk.

    • Lesson 6: Conclusion

      This section reviews key learning points and concludes with a final project that analyzes the case study to reach a credit decision and recommend whether to support a specific lending request.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Construct a structured framework for conducting comprehensive corporate credit analysis.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for professionals working in banking and finance who utilise credit in their roles. You could be an analyst, underwriter, or relationship manager, or simply someone looking to deepen your understanding of credit risk to support better business decisions.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

Starweaver

Starweaver is a next generation platform that engages your workforce as no other. Combining business and technical skills, Starweaver provides real-time skill building that is in line with your business objectives and strategies, and in your associates day to day tasks and jobs.

Ways to learn

Subscribe & save

Buy this course

Start learning today

Choose the best way to learn for you!

$349.99 for one year

Automatically renews

$54/one-off payment

Free

Develop skills to further your careerFulfill your current learning needTry this course - with limits
Access to this courseticktick

Limited to 2 weeks

Access to 1,000+ coursestickcrosscross
Learn at your own paceticktickcross
Discuss your learning in commentstickticktick
Certificate when you're eligibleDigital onlyPrinted and digitalcross
Continue & Upgrade

Cancel for free anytime

Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Buy this course

$54/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Subscribe & save

$349.99 for one year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Start learning today

Free

Try this course - with limits

  • Limited to 2 weeks

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...