Target Markets

Primarily banks, non-bank financial companies and insurers, multilateral development finance institutions, and government-owned financial and industrial institutions

SCIC has advised banks, non-bank finance companies and insurers / reinsurers on ratings, credit enhancement and structured finance. Clients have included banks in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia such as: UBS, Dexia, Banco Finantia, ICICI, HDFC Credila, Access Bank of Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria, Ecobank Transnational Inc., TAIB, BPN, Sterling Bank, Baytree Finance Company, and African Reinsurance Corporation. SCIC can provide the following services for commercial financial institutions.

Rating Advisory
  • Advise banks and insurance companies on new ratings and/or maintaining and improving existing credit ratings from several global rating agencies (such as S&P, Moody's, Fitch and A.M. Best) and local market credit rating agencies (such as Agusto and GCR), including in situations involving major acquisitions or macroeconomic deteriorations
  • Carry out for a bank or an insurance company an internal assessment on the feasibility of a new rating
  • Advise a bank (including a bank holding company) on improving communications with global credit rating agencies to maintain and enhance its existing credit ratings
Credit Enhancement
  • Advise on market demand and business plans for providing credit enhancement, making an acquisition or establishing a non-bank financial guarantor
  • Develop business plans for the establishment of (a) financial guarantee companies, and (b) specialized non-bank finance companies for structured and infrastructure finance
  • Evaluate a bank's capabilities to originate, underwrite and service mortgage loans for a securitization without third party credit enhancement
Structured Finance
  • Structure and advise on ratings of innovative receivables securitizations for funding via term financings or commercial paper
  • Validate internal models for the valuation of complex single-name and structured CDS portfolios as required by auditors and regulators
  • Assess the credit risks of and/or structure a mortgage backed security or collateralized debt obligation
  • Selectively help identify investors for entities in structured finance businesses

SCIC has advised multilateral development finance institutions on ratings, risk management, and structured finance. Clients have included the World Bank, NIB, Inter-American Development Bank, Central American Bank for Economic Integration, African Development Bank, African Reinsurance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, Africa Finance Corporation, Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement, East African Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development, etc. SCIC can provide the following services for multilateral development finance institutions.

Rating Advisory
  • Advise on initial ratings from S&P, Moody's, Fitch and other rating agencies and help achieve investment grade ratings
  • Successfully appeal potential rating downgrades to retain top ratings even if some or all shareholders are downgraded
  • Advise on a negative rating outlook and help get the rating reaffirmed with the outlook upgraded to stable
  • Advise on rating agency presentations, both written and oral, for rating upgrades, including to investment grade
Risk Management
  • Assess enterprise risk management processes, policies and tools and recommend improvements
  • Build an internal economic capital model using Monte Carlo simulations
  • Develop an internal credit risk rating system for private sector loans and guarantees for project and structured financings, corporations, sub-national governments, financial institutions, and sovereign governments
  • Train the client's investment officers and risk management staff on the use of a new internal ratings methodology
  • Assess if a project financing facility should be rated higher than the country rating
Structured Finance
  • Develop a menu of partial credit guarantee products and risk sharing methodologies for use in private sector structured and corporate financings
  • Analyze capital structure, leverage and borrowing policies to increase headroom for expansion of lending activities to emerging markets without a rating downgrade
  • Develop underwriting guidelines for secondary housing finance credit exposures
  • Conduct a survey and analysis of private sector investments in infrastructure and draw lessons for collaboration with the private sector

SCIC has advised government-owned financial institutions primarily on ratings and structured finance. Clients have included the Government of Thailand, Central Bank of the Bahamas, Bank of Uganda, OeKB, Swedish Export Credit, and Kommunalbanken Norway. SCIC can provide the following services for government-owned financial and industrial institutions.

Rating Advisory
  • Advise export credit agencies and municipal lenders on rating agency presentations to achieve top credit ratings without government guarantees
  • Advise the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government as shareholders of government-owned financial institutions on how to conduct their presentations to the rating agencies
  • Advise a state-owned enterprise whether its issuance of debt would lead to a rating downgrade of its municipal or sovereign owner
Structured Finance
  • Advise a municipal lender on the potential issuance of infrastructure revenue bonds to attract private investment to finance essential infrastructure
  • Advise a central bank on the enhancement of the liquidity of government bond markets and the creation of structured finance markets
  • Assess the performance of a central bank's external fund managers in the management of its international reserves and recommend changes in investment guidelines and the external managers based among other things on performance attribution and peer group analysis