How Offshore Analysts Support Loan Monitoring & Portfolio Surveillance

This is an overview article. It explains how offshore analysts are typically used to support loan monitoring and portfolio surveillance, and where responsibility and judgement remain onshore.

If you are looking for judgement-heavy private credit or underwriting work, see: Private Credit Investment Analysis for Direct Lending Funds.

What loan monitoring and portfolio surveillance actually involve

Loan monitoring is not a single task. In practice, it is a continuous operating workflow that sits between deal execution and investment decision-making. It is often referred to internally as loan portfolio management (LPM), particularly when monitoring is organised at portfolio rather than single-name level.

Across leveraged finance, private credit, and bank loan books, monitoring typically includes:

Periodic financial statement updates
Covenant calculations and headroom tracking
Compliance certificates and reporting packs
Early-warning indicators and variance tracking
Credit file maintenance and monitoring notes
Portfolio-level summaries for IC or risk committees

The cadence can be repetitive, but the work is rarely purely mechanical — particularly once portfolios move beyond large, sponsor-backed names with standardised reporting.

Where offshore analysts fit in the monitoring process

Offshore analysts are most effective when embedded as dedicated monitoring analysts, supporting an onshore credit or portfolio manager.

Typical responsibilities include:

Updating financials from borrower reporting
Maintaining covenant models and trackers
Reconciling reported figures to bank or fund definitions
Preparing draft monitoring notes and portfolio updates
Flagging anomalies, delays, or deviations for review

The analyst owns the preparation and maintenance of monitoring outputs. Onshore teams retain ownership of interpretation, risk judgement, and escalation.

Standard vs non-standard reporting: where monitoring becomes human

Monitoring looks very different across borrower size and sophistication.

Large, well-established borrowers

Typically provide clean, standardised reporting
Covenant definitions are well understood
Monitoring is largely a control and consistency exercise

Mid-market and smaller borrowers

Reporting formats vary significantly
Financials may not map cleanly to covenant definitions
Adjustments and clarifications are often required

This is where monitoring stops being purely administrative.

Ratios used for covenants frequently require:

Re-classification of line items
Adjustments to EBITDA definitions
Clarification of add-backs or exclusions
Reconciliation between management accounts and legal definitions

Frontline analysts are trained to handle this interpretive (but non-judgemental) layer of work so that covenant monitoring remains consistent and comparable across the portfolio.

Borrower liaison and relationship management support

In many monitoring situations, discrepancies cannot be resolved from documents alone.

Offshore analysts can support borrower liaison — typically via the relationship manager or portfolio lead — including:

Drafting clarification questions on reporting anomalies
Explaining required formats or definitions to borrowers
Iterating on covenant calculations once clarifications are received
Helping borrowers improve the consistency of future submissions

This interaction is not decision-making. It is about bringing both sides onto the same technical footing, reducing friction and repeated follow-ups over time.

Briefing support for relationship managers ahead of borrower calls

Because monitoring analysts work continuously with the same borrowers, they accumulate practical, current context that can be difficult to reconstruct quickly ahead of calls or meetings.

In practice, offshore analysts regularly support relationship managers by:

Preparing concise pre-call briefs highlighting recent reporting movements
Summarising open items, clarifications in progress, or recurring reporting issues
Flagging sensitivities around covenant calculations or definitions
Providing clean explanations of technical adjustments made since the last period

This support does not replace the relationship manager’s role. It ensures that borrower conversations are well-prepared, technically accurate, and efficient — particularly when time is constrained or when reporting has been inconsistent.

Operating model: how the work is structured

Loan monitoring support is usually delivered through a dedicated analyst model:

One analyst aligned to a specific portfolio or desk
Embedded into existing monitoring cycles
Working to defined templates and review standards
Supported by senior oversight and QA

Oversight typically includes:

Regular review of covenant calculations and reconciliations
Spot-checks on adjustments and mapping choices
Escalation of unresolved issues to onshore teams
Ongoing calibration to house standards

The goal is consistency, continuity, and reduced management burden for the onshore team.

What stays firmly onshore

While offshore analysts handle preparation, reconciliation, and liaison support, the following remain onshore responsibilities:

Credit judgement and risk interpretation
Waiver decisions and escalation calls
IC positioning and portfolio strategy
Borrower relationship ownership

This boundary is explicit and deliberate. Monitoring support strengthens onshore judgement; it does not replace it.

Monitoring vs deal-time support

Although this article focuses on ongoing monitoring, many teams use the same offshore analysts to support deal-time work during peak periods.

This can include:

Model updates during refinancings or amendments
Historical financial clean-up for new transactions
Data room analysis and covenant build-outs

For examples of offshore support during issuance and execution, see: Corporate Bond & DCM Support.

When offshore monitoring works best

This model is most effective when:

Portfolios are large enough to justify dedicated support
Monitoring processes are defined (even if borrower reporting is not standardised)
Onshore teams retain clear ownership and escalation authority
There is continuity rather than ad-hoc tasking

Where these conditions are met, offshore monitoring support improves coverage quality while reducing operational drag.