Credit Analyst
🧾Studies the accounts of a company asking a bank for a loan: can it carry the debt, what collateral to take, on what terms to lend and whether to lend at all.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $90.5k a year on average · -4.3% jobs by 2035 · 3,100 openings a year
Credit analysts — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🇬🇧 £50.6k median a year · 174,000 jobs
Finance and investment analysts and advisers — UK: ONS ASHE 2025 (full-time)
🤖 AI & automation
Loans to small firms and individuals are already approved by scoring models. Analysts will stay on large, unusual deals, and there will be fewer of them.
Who it suits
Interests: 💰 Finance and economics, 📐 Maths and data, 🗂️ Order, paperwork, systems.
Key strengths: maths, logic, attention to detail.
Where to study
- Bachelor's BSc Finance, Accounting or Economics
- Apprenticeship Bank graduate programme (credit / risk track)
- Course CFA or ACCA (optional)
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): Maths, Economics, Business.
🧗 A finance, accounting or economics degree, then a bank graduate programme in credit or risk. CFA or ACCA speed up progression.
Universities
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) London · €33.2k–45.9k/yr
£28,900–39,900 (2026/27, fixed for the degree); A-levels/IB; IELTS ≈7.0; TMUA for some programmes - University of Warwick Coventry · €33.6k–42.9k/yr
Attestat alone not enough: foundation or A-levels/IB; IELTS 6.5–7.0; maths requires STEP/TMUA; 2027/28 fees £29.3–37.3k - Lancaster University Lancaster · €31.2k/yr
IELTS 6.5 (5.5 each); Attestat + foundation at the International Study Centre; Finance 2027/28 £27.1k
🇺🇸 United States
- University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) Philadelphia · €64.4k/yr
Common App; SAT/ACT required; TOEFL/IELTS/DET for non-native speakers (taken Apr 2025+); aid for internationals is need-aware - New York University (Stern School of Business) New York · €61.3k/yr
Common App; TOEFL/IELTS/DET for non-native speakers; ≈ $103k/yr with housing - University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business) Austin · €37k–44.5k/yr
non-resident tuition (business at the top of the range); TOEFL 4 / IELTS 6.5 / DET 115
🇩🇪 Germany
- Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Frankfurt · €17.2k/yr
Private: €8,600 a semester + €700 fees; online assessment centre (reasoning, English, interview); all English from semester 4 - Goethe University Frankfurt Frankfurt · free
No tuition; DSH-2 at the time of application (DSH-3 for medicine and dentistry); ISZ preparatory school from B1 - University of Mannheim Mannheim · €3k/yr
Non-EU: €1,500 a semester; C1 (TestDaF 4x4, DSH-2) by the deadline; no fully English bachelor's; apply directly
🇳🇱 Netherlands
- Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam · €13.5k–32.2k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year; IELTS ≈ 6.5; medicine is Dutch-taught, numerus fixus (400 places), €32,200 - Tilburg University Tilburg · €13.4k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year; maths for economics; IELTS ≈ 6.5 - University of Amsterdam Amsterdam · €17.5k/yr
Certificate + usually 1 university year (Diploma finder); IELTS 6.5 (PPLE 7.0); medicine is Dutch-taught, numerus fixus, €34,700
🇫🇷 France
- HEC Paris Jouy-en-Josas · €23k–26.8k/yr
Only bachelor is with Bocconi (Data, Society & Organisations, English): year 1 in Milan, year 3 at HEC - EDHEC Business School Roubaix · €15.9k–23.9k/yr
International BBA: online English test, personality test, online interview; 5 rounds; up to 25% scholarship - Université Paris Dauphine – PSL Paris
Selective licence (file review), in French; foreigners via Études en France *
🇮🇹 Italy
- Bocconi University Milan · €17k–17.7k/yr
Bocconi test, SAT or ACT (equivalent); English B2 (certificate or Bocconi test); fee €17,700 (2027/28) - LUISS Guido Carli Rome · €14k–15k/yr
Private, flat fee regardless of income: €14,000 (2026/27), €15,000 (2027/28); own test or SAT, English B2 - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milan
9 English-taught bachelor's (Communication Management, Finance, Psychology etc.); English B2, selection by documents
🇪🇸 Spain
- Comillas Pontifical University (ICADE) Madrid · €15.8k/yr
Written entrance tests; ADE fully in English, law in English/Spanish; ≈ €15,830 a year - CUNEF University Madrid
Own admission tests; IBE and PPE fully in English - Esade (Ramon Llull University) Sant Cugat del Vallès · €21.3k/yr
Esade Admissions Test (logic, maths, English); BBA in English or bilingual; €21,300 a year
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- Prague University of Economics and Business Prague · €0–5k/yr
Free in Czech; English bachelor's €5,000/yr (2026/27 intake; €6,000 from 2027/28) - Masaryk University Brno · €0–16k/yr
Free in Czech; English €2,700–7,500/yr (Informatics €4,500), Medicine CZK 380,000; Czech ≈B2 + entrance exams - VSB – Technical University of Ostrava Ostrava · €0–4k/yr
Free in Czech; English bachelor's CZK 50,000 per semester (≈€4,000/yr)
Things to know
🪑 Sitting at a computer all day
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