Commercial Rating and Underwriting Intern

Job Description

Here is a detailed description of the company and the job:

About American Express

American Express boasts a 175-year history of innovation, built upon shared values and Leadership Behaviors. The company is deeply committed to backing its customers, communities, and colleagues. As a member of Team Amex, employees receive comprehensive support for their holistic well-being, along with numerous opportunities to learn new skills, develop as leaders, and advance their careers. American Express fosters an environment where employee voices and ideas are valued, their work creates significant impact, and together, they contribute to defining the future of American Express.

About the Job: Commercial Rating and Underwriting (CRU) Intern

This role is for an intern within the Commercial Rating and Underwriting (CRU) team, which is part of the Credit and Fraud Risk division at American Express.

Business Unit/Role Specific Info:
The CRU team plays a critical global role in assessing and managing the risk of institutional exposures across all business areas and regions of American Express. These credit exposures primarily arise from:
• Corporate and small business card programs.
• Merchant service relationships where non-delivery risk is present.
• Securities portfolios held for firm-wide liquidity.
The CRU team is primarily led from Salt Lake City, with additional regional teams located in New York, London, Singapore, and Sydney.

Beyond determining the internal credit rating (which drives the probability of default for each exposure), CRU also calculates the loss given default for these obligors while underwriting card programs. As a bank holding company, American Express must adhere to the highest global banking standards set by its primary regulator, the Federal Reserve.

How You Will Make an Impact in This Role:
As an intern in this role, you will be expected to:
• Rate and underwrite credit exposures within an assigned region, industry, and business line.
• Conduct fundamental analysis through a thorough review of:
• Business operations.
• Financial performance.
• Industry and country risk.
• Utilize outputs from internal and external rating models to support credit decisions.
• Assess the need for credit extension by evaluating:
• Relationship profitability.
• Program structures.

Minimum Requirements:
Candidates must meet the following criteria:
• Currently enrolled in a full-time undergraduate degree program.
• Bachelor’s degree candidates with an expected graduation date between December 2026 and June 2027.

Preferred Requirements:
Ideal candidates will also possess:
• Current enrollment in, or substantial coursework completed for, a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, or statistics.
• An understanding of fundamental financial analysis, including the ability to review corporate financial documents to determine an obligor’s capacity to meet credit obligations.
• Comfort with GAAP/IFRS accounting standards, corporate valuation, and forecasting.
• Familiarity with public agency ratings and their supporting analyses.
• An understanding of current macroeconomic trends and the ability to recommend improvements for probability of default (PD) estimation based on the business cycle.
• Experience in preparing company-specific and industry-wide credit memorandums.
• Familiarity with global markets (foreign language ability is a plus).
• Confident and persuasive written and verbal communication skills.

Salary and Benefits:
• Salary Range: $24.05 to $63.00 hourly, plus a sign-on bonus. Actual pay will be determined by location, experience, and other job-related factors.
• Employment Eligibility: Required to work with American Express in the United States; visa sponsorship will not be pursued for these positions.
• Benefits: Comprehensive support for holistic well-being, including:
• Competitive base salaries.
• Flexible work arrangements and schedules with hybrid and virtual options through Amex Flex.
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (location dependent).
• Free and confidential counseling support via the Healthy Minds program.
• Extensive career development and training opportunities.

Work Model:
American Express utilizes Amex Flex, an enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility while preserving its unique in-person culture. Depending on the role and business needs, colleagues will work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days), or fully virtually.

Equal Opportunity Employer:
American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. The company considers all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with applicable state and local laws.