Commercial Credit Underwriting

It takes a keen eye for detail to ensure the best decision is made in the credit approval process. The underwriters at Enlighten Financial analyze a company’s financial statements and global cash flow to assist your team in making a well-informed credit decision. We apply stress testing in our credit methodology to assess a borrower’s credit capacity in the event of an economic downturn.

Credit Analysis

A clear understanding and analysis of your borrower’s financial position is the starting point of a potential long-term relationship.

Our experienced credit professionals cut through the financial statements to identify key drivers and dynamics within the statements to provide a thorough analysis of your borrower’s financial strength.

We will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your borrower based on the financial statements and other information provided. We will provide the insight you need to make an informed credit decision and incorporate a risk management credit structure.

Dedicated Services

Enlighten Financial credit professionals are dedicated to credit risk management for financial institutions. We can utilize our proprietary underwriting worksheet or incorporate your existing methodology and presentation to deliver our services efficiently and effectively.

Strength of the Team

Enlighten Financial credit professionals each bring nearly 20 years of commercial banking, credit, and credit administration experience to your institution. Each has exposure to hundreds of credit relationships annually to provide breadth and depth to our work. We work as your partner for effective credit underwriting.

Credit Underwriting

  • Experienced professionals
  • Flexible engagement structure
  • New credit opportunities
  • Annual reviews

Service Delivery

  • Remote service delivery
  • Utilization of our underwriting tools or your existing templates
  • Remote access to your underwriting systems
  • Agreed-upon turn-around times

Needs Based

  • Long-term solution to enhance your team
  • Temporary solution to manage seasonal volumes
  • Provide support for employee turnover

Co-Sourced Analysis

  • Provide additional support for internal resources
  • Work independently or as a part of an internal team

Download our commercial underwriting info sheet

How our Commercial Credit Underwriting services have made a difference.

Challenge #1

A financial institution had a temporary reduction in underwriting capacity due to difficulty finding credit analysts. As a result, loan officers performed more and more analysis on their borrowers. This resulted in reduced independence in the loan underwriting process and utilized a high-cost resource for a lower-cost process.

Enlighten Financial Solution

Enlighten Financial provided a customized credit underwriting and analysis process structured to meet the unique goals of the organization. Enlighten Financial’s highly trained credit analysts and risk management professionals provided the skills necessary for the organization to make well-informed credit decisions while delivering the services in a flexible, cost-effective manner. Enlighten Financial provided flexible underwriting services to meet the client’s need for independent analysis.

Enlighten Financial’s underwriting services can be used as a full-time credit function, or as a variable function to support overflow, temporary staffing challenges, or targeted for certain loan sizes or industries.

Challenge #2

A financial institution’s current credit team lacked the necessary level of experience to consistently identify risk in the credit underwriting process. Their credit team did not have the level of experience or knowledge to effectively underwrite larger, more complex credit opportunities.

Enlighten Financial Solution

Enlighten Financial’s team of risk management professionals reviewed the credit analysis performed by the financial institution and provided valuable independent feedback on areas of potential improvement. The Enlighten Financial recommendations provided feedback to the lender that allowed for a well-informed credit decision and improved credit structure. Additionally, the process provided real-life training opportunities for the analysts.

Challenge #3

An institution’s annual review was behind schedule due to limited resources in the credit department and prioritization of new loan opportunities and renewals. As a result, the annual review process was at risk of falling short of loan policy and established risk management practices required by the board of directors.

Enlighten Financial Solution

Enlighten Financial’s team of credit professionals provided underwriting and analysis services in the annual review process. The process allowed the financial institution to meet expectations and policy established by the Board of Directors while also ensuring risk ratings were accurate based on the most recent financial performance of the borrower.


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“The staff at Enlighten have been available for questions, in addition to the engaged work that they do. They've been very helpful as a resource beyond the major audit.”
— Meghann Kasper, Chief Credit Officer, Bank First
“Enlighten gives us a very good second set of eyes on our transactions. They're not afraid to challenge us on some of the work that we've done, which is what is needed. I don't need to pay somebody to tell me I'm good, I need to pay somebody to tell me where I've made mistakes.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“Enlighten provided industry best practices that weren’t going to show up in an audit report. They would say, ‘Hey, I noticed you do this. This is really unique, you do a really great job of it.’ And then they might add, ‘Some other clients that I have are doing something like this.’”
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection
“By questioning some of our methodologies, Enlighten has helped us say, ‘Okay, this is where we need to train staff better and focus on so that they understand what they're doing better.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“The organization of the communication — before, during, and after the reporting process — was certainly better with Enlighten than what I've experienced with a lot of auditors.”
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection
“The staff at Enlighten have been available for questions, in addition to the engaged work that they do. They've been very helpful as a resource beyond the major audit.”
— Meghann Kasper, Chief Credit Officer, Bank First
“Enlighten gives us a very good second set of eyes on our transactions. They're not afraid to challenge us on some of the work that we've done, which is what is needed. I don't need to pay somebody to tell me I'm good, I need to pay somebody to tell me where I've made mistakes.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“Enlighten provided industry best practices that weren’t going to show up in an audit report. They would say, ‘Hey, I noticed you do this. This is really unique, you do a really great job of it.’ And then they might add, ‘Some other clients that I have are doing something like this.’”
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection
“By questioning some of our methodologies, Enlighten has helped us say, ‘Okay, this is where we need to train staff better and focus on so that they understand what they're doing better.”
— Robert McPherson, VP of Risk Management, Peoples State Bank
“The organization of the communication — before, during, and after the reporting process — was certainly better with Enlighten than what I've experienced with a lot of auditors."
— Bill Beardsley, President, Michigan Business Connection