Principal Credit Officer: Portfolio Management

Job Description

The role is responsible for the ongoing assessment, monitoring, and optimisation of credit risk within the existing portfolio of investments across South Africa, the Rest of Africa and High Impact. The role is critical to maintaining portfolio health through in-depth credit reviews, financial analysis, and proactive risk mitigation strategies. Applying technical and commercial expertise and legal knowledge, the role supports strategic decision-making, contributes to the credit compliance, and ensures that exposures remain aligned with institutional risk appetite. This role interacts closely with the Credit Origination team responsible for new transactions while maintaining dedicated focus on the post-approval performance of the existing portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

1. Credit Portfolio Monitoring and Risk Reviews

• Conduct structured, periodic credit reviews on all existing transactions, ensuring timely identification of deterioration of risks.
• Initiate/review rapid risk reviews in response to emerging external or internal risk signals, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders for effective intervention.
• Track financial and non-financial covenants, monitoring borrower compliance and reporting anomalies.
• Review credit quality across sectors and regions, flagging trends and proposing remedial strategies.
• Provide early warning indicators and analysis to credit committees and forums to support pre-emptive action.
• Perform quick-turnaround risk assessments for urgent or material changes.
• Evaluate and recommend credit amendments, waivers, or restructures.

2. Credit Assessment and Financial Analysis

• Undertake in-depth financial and cash-flow analysis of portfolio companies, evaluating performance against initial projections and market benchmarks.
• Review credit opinions for additional lines of credit for public sector clients, as part of the annual review.
• Review accuracy and appropriateness of credit assessments, rating model methodologies applied to ensure correctness and quality of credit assessments to enable decision-making.
• Prepare portfolio performance reports, incorporating peer comparisons, geographic and sectors developments, and macroeconomic conditions affecting the Bank portfolio.
• Assess amendments to credit terms and provides recommendations for restructuring, covenant waivers, or rescheduling proposals as required.
• Conduct scenario analysis and stress testing on key exposures, feeding insights into credit risk appetite and capital allocation decisions.
• Support efforts to enhance risk-adjusted return through active management of the credit book.

3. Portfolio Management and Compliance

• Adherence to credit-related compliance with internal policies, regulatory standards, and investment mandates across all geographies.
• Liaise with team members to ensure seamless handover and continuous oversight of transactions post disbursement.
• Support the disbursement process, post-handover, to ensure facility conditions are met as required.
• Maintains up-to-date credit ratings and internal loan classifications of all transactions, supporting ongoing monitoring and reporting functions.
• Participate in the maintenance and improvement of the credit value chain, identifying process inefficiencies and supporting enhancements to credit systems and processes. Serve as a subject matter expert on portfolio management and credit-related matters for special projects or in pursuit of identifying lessons learnt that can be adopted in origination as well as appropriate forms of credit risk mitigation strategies.

4. Strategic Engagement

• Support governance reporting by contributing to reports for Board committees, EXCO, and relevant committees post disbursements.
• Support the periodic IFRS 9 provisioning and ECL measurement forum.
• Support internal portfolio management committees and forums for early warning identification and intervention.
• Contribute to policy development and implementation of portfolio related frameworks and guidelines.
• Support audits by preparing necessary reports and documentation in line with best practice and standards.

5. Financial Modelling and Analysis

• Build and/or review and challenge model assumptions in financial models for a portfolio of companies.
• Conduct cash flow analysis, stress testing, and scenario analysis to test financial viability and draw conclusions / make recommendations to mitigate financial risks identified.
• Review ongoing financial compliance of updated financial models and/or recommend and implement new credit risk mitigants (e.g. conditions, collateral, guarantees), as required.
• Perform peer benchmarking and sectoral credit comparisons in order to provide valuable insights for the review of the financial modelling assessment.
• Support light restructuring and re-scheduling of distressed exposures.

6. Stakeholder Management and Problem-Solving

• Collaborate effectively with stakeholders to achieve common goals, facilitating open and clear communication.
• Actively listen, share information, and foster a cooperative environment that encourages diverse perspectives and collective problem-solving.

7. People Management

• Lead and develop team members by setting clear objectives, providing constructive feedback, and fostering a supportive and collaborative work environment.
• Recognising individual strengths, facilitating professional growth, and aligning team efforts with organisational goals to enhance overall performance and engagement.
• Provide technical assistance and mentorship to portfolio analysts.
• Facilitate training and capacity building within the team on portfolio management, credit tools, and evolving credit practices.

8. Reporting and Monitoring

• Stay abreast of sector and country intelligence relevant to portfolio management activities.
• Produce accurate, insightful reports and continuously monitoring key financial and non-financial metrics to assess performance and credit migration risk.
• Analyse data to identify trends, inform strategic decisions, and provide stakeholders with clear, actionable information that supports ongoing performance improvement and accountability.
• Utilise appropriate technologies and tools to enhance reporting efficiency and clarity, while also safeguarding the confidentiality and sensitivity of the information included.
• Maintain high standards of accuracy and timeliness to deliver reports that are timely, relevant and precise.

Key measurement of output:

• Percentage of scheduled and ad hoc credit reviews completed on time and in line with internal standards.
• Precision of internal credit ratings aligned with appropriate model methodologies and validated through back-testing or audit reviews.
• Timely detection of early warning indicators and escalated through appropriate channels.
• Number of covenant breaches identified and resolved and compliance rate across the monitored portfolio.
• Average time taken to complete normal and urgent risk assessment and recommend amendments or waivers.
• Quality of financial models built or reviewed, stakeholder feedback on model accuracy and usefulness for decision-making.
• Percentage of distressed exposures stabilised or improved through active and appropriate credit intervention strategies.
• Percentage of reports submitted on time with no material errors; frequency of actionable insights derived from reports; percentage of submissions deferred as a result of substandard quality.
• Feedback from internal and external stakeholders on quality, communication, responsiveness, and problem-solving support.

Expertise & Technical Competencies

a) Risk Identification & Assessment / Technical

• Diagnoses significant, unusual and emerging risks to which the business is exposed.
• Advises on applicable aspects of risk identification and assess