The Credit Research unit is a broad-based team of credit analysts with a variety of backgrounds. This we believe adds to the diversity and breadth of knowledge in the group.
We operate along sector lines with one of us covering consumer-based asset-backed securities (such as Credit Card receivables), and another covering corporate-based ABS and Structured Finance. We have also split the financial institutions sector geographically, with one covering European and Australian banks, and another covering rest-of-the-world banks (the bulk of which are US banks and financial instituitions in our case). We have separate coverage for corporate and sovereign credits.
Fundamental to our approach is a broad analysis of risk. This involves understanding traditional credit risk and the ability to analyse political, legal, structural, and sometimes even cultural risks. All our decisions are based on the assumption that investments are held to maturity. Therefore, we face constant challenges to understand the stability of an investment over its life. This includes the repayment of principal and interest on time, in addition to the volatility of ratings over the life of a particular credit.
