Corporate Credit Analyst
70% skill overlap
To add: Corporate governance
Your role
Merchant Underwriting & Risk Analyst
BriefYour role
Also known as Merchant Risk Analyst · Merchant Underwriter · Payments Risk Analyst
- L3 salary
- Not published yet
- Upcoming dated changes
- 13 changes ahead
What the role does
Merchant Underwriting & Risk Analyst is a role in Operations, Asset Servicing & Risk. The family covers risk, operations, settlements, fund and investment operations in financial firms. The core skill is merchant acquiring and payment processing, and the main work is cards and merchant acquiring, client onboarding and KYC and credit risk and lending decisions.
Levels
- L1 Starting out
- L2 Independent
- L3 Senior or specialist
- L4 Leads a team or an area
- L5 Leads the function
Full level descriptions and job titles
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Learns the job; executes defined tasks with supervision | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Owns a process end to end; trains L1; first contact for the team's clients | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Deep expertise; handles exceptions and change; represents the function in projects | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Manages people or a large process; owns budgets or controls; escalation point | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Accountable for the function in a legal entity or region; sets priorities and standards | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Skills
Where the skill weights come from
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
Critical
- Merchant acquiring and payment processingWeight 13.1%Relevant to you
- Credit analysis and creditworthinessWeight 8.7%Relevant to you
- Know your customer due diligenceWeight 8.7%Relevant to you
- Fraud typologies and controlsWeight 8.7%Relevant to you
Important and supporting skills 20
Important
- Financial statement analysis and ratiosWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Credit risk models (IFRS 9, IRB)Weight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Basel framework and capitalWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Descriptive statistics and distributionsWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Advanced Microsoft ExcelWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Risk judgment and escalation instinctWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Professional written communicationWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Querying data with SQLWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Attention to detailWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Prudential and regulatory reporting (COREP, FINREP, US call reports)Weight 4.4%Relevant to you
Supporting
- Control mindset (what could go wrong)Weight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Financial markets knowledgeWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Applied statistical modelling for pricing and risk (GLM, survival)Weight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Statistical software (SAS, R)Weight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Working to tight deadlinesWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Derivatives and how they workWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Assessing the quality of sourcesWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
Useful
- Python for data analysisWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
- Stakeholder managementWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
- International accounting standards (IFRS)Weight 0.7%Relevant to you
Processes
The work the role takes part in.
- Cards and merchant acquiring
- Client onboarding and KYC
- Credit risk and lending decisions
- Fraud prevention
What each process covers
- Cards and merchant acquiringMain
- Client onboarding and KYCMain
- Credit risk and lending decisionsMain
- Fraud preventionMain
- Capital calculationSupporting
- Model development and validationSupporting
- Prudential reportingSupporting
Dated changes for this role
- Second Consumer Credit Directive appliesRelevant to you
- EU Digital Identity Wallets: banks must accept themRelevant to you
- Digital euro regulation in final negotiationsRelevant to you
- CRR3 output floor rises to 60 percent in 2027 and 65 percent in 2028Relevant to you
- FINMA circular on nature-related financial risks phases inRelevant to you
Worth knowing
Salary snapshot
Salary figures are not published yet
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Certifications
- FRM
- PRM
- CFA Program Level I
- ACCA Qualification
Concepts to know
Neighbouring roles
Roles that need many of the same skills, by weighted skill overlap, with the skills you would need to add.
Credit Risk Analyst
70% skill overlap
Your role
Credit Risk Model Developer
70% skill overlap
Your role
Underwriting Analyst
51% skill overlap
To add: Insurance pricing, reserving and product economics, Insurance regulation (Solvency II, IDD, NAIC, IRDAI), Reading client needs and dynamics
Your role
Market Risk Analyst
45% skill overlap
To add: Risk measures and sensitivities, Model validation and governance, Independent price verification
Your role
Model Validation Analyst
44% skill overlap
To add: Risk measures and sensitivities, Model validation and governance, Independent price verification
Your role
Do this job? Suggest a correction
Sources
- The EFO role catalogue, with skills, levels and processes. How it is built
- ESCO classification of the European Commission (external site)
Asset servicingAsset servicing is the set of services an intermediary provides on securities it holds for clients after settlement: corporate actions, income collection, tax relief, proxy voting, class actions and reporting. It is usually sold together with custody, fund administration or depositary services.
Merchant acquiringMerchant acquiring is the service of contracting with merchants to accept card and other electronic payments, processing those transactions and paying the funds to the merchant. The acquirer bears the merchant's credit risk, such as chargebacks after a merchant fails, so it underwrites merchants and may hold reserves. PSD2 lists acquiring as a payment service.
KYC (Know Your Customer)Know Your Customer is the process a firm uses to establish and verify who its customer is, who owns and controls it, what the relationship is for and how risky it is, before onboarding and throughout the relationship. In EU law it is carried out through customer due diligence measures.