Credit review

The Independent Credit Approver reads the application and its evidence at a specific revision. A decision has its own record, including reviewer, decision, reason, time and source revision. This lets the team distinguish an approval of the current application from a prior decision on an older version.

A decision belongs to a specific application revision. Independent Credit Approver compares the submitted request with its attachments before recording Approve, Reject or Return and a reason. The reviewer and decision time remain on the decision record. The Credit Officer can then tell whether the current request was authorized or returned for more work.

• Read the current request. Compare borrower, principal, revision and supporting attachment.
• Separate people. The reviewer must differ from the person who submitted the application.
• Keep the reason. Record the decision and explanation against the revision actually reviewed.

Agree who can submit work for review and which people qualify as independent approvers. The approver needs enough context to decide whether the borrower and requested principal belong in the organization’s lending scope. The person who prepared the request should not make its independent decision.

Agree how the team assigns an independent reviewer and what makes an application ready for Review. Have the Credit Officer revise a returned request and ask the approver to compare the new amount with the earlier decision. Keep the earlier decision for the Auditor instead of replacing its reason or date.

Start with a request marked Review. Have a different team member inspect its borrower, amount and attachment. Record an Approve, Reject or Return decision with a reason. Then change the principal and confirm that the earlier decision remains attached to its original revision. Resolve the changed request through another review before using it.

The approver should find the request in Review queue and open its supporting attachment before deciding. After a Return decision, the Credit Officer should see what to correct. If the principal changes, the old approval cannot stand for the new revision; route that changed request back through review.

• Review queue — Find applications waiting for an independent decision.
• Review decisions — Inspect reviewer, revision, decision, reason and date.

See the related process for the case sequence and the data model for the record relationships. Use roles to rehearse access before the team begins.