Amruta Ganu’s interest in credit began with curiosity. While reading business newspapers, she noticed company names followed by letter combinations such as AA and BBB. When she discovered that these were credit ratings, she was fascinated by “the idea of categorizing debt according to its likelihood of default.” That fascination eventually led her to pursue a career in credit.

The Foundations for a Credit Career

Growing up in India, Amruta studied economics before completing a master’s degree in international business economics and finance. Statistics and mathematics were a constant throughout her university education. This grounding in humanities and quantitative subjects helped her secure her role at CRISIL, an S&P Global company and India’s largest credit rating agency. Over three and a half years, she progressed from management trainee to senior credit analyst, supporting S&P Global analysts in New York and Chicago on US public finance local government ratings.

Her work focused on municipal debt backed by limited tax general obligation and priority lien pledges. Alongside her core responsibilities, she contributed to thought leadership on research projects such as Michigan local government credit forum and a study of the impact of demographic changes on local government credit quality. Looking back, Amruta says CRISIL “gave me the foundation for my career as a credit ratings professional” and taught her to combine data, economics, and policy to form a clear view of credit risk.

Turning Process Improvement into Impact

One of Amruta’s most significant achievements at CRISIL was initiating and leading a project to streamline the annual review workflow for the US Public Finance Local Governments team at CRISIL. With five regional teams using different formats and manually collating data, collaboration was difficult and the risk of human error high.

Amruta created a formula that pulled the required data into a standardized format, allowing analysts to spend less time entering and checking figures and more time interpreting the drivers behind them. The solution improved collaboration across regions and delivered annual time savings of more than 500 hours. The concept initially met with resistance, so, as project owner, she had to build support and steer it through approval and implementation. “Bringing different stakeholder groups on board and working through the inevitable challenges was an intensive but fulfilling learning experience,” she says.

A Three-Dimensional Career Pivot

Working closely with North American colleagues gave Amruta insight into a new professional environment and inspired her to pursue an MBA at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, where she specialized in finance and strategy.

After graduating, she joined Fitch Ratings as a Senior Analyst in Fund Finance. “Moving from one credit rating agency to another might appear to be a move within the same sector, but US local governments and fund finance are distinct areas, with very different underlying asset portfolios,” she explains. She credits this achievement to her combination of work experience and the expertise in finance and strategy she gained through her MBA.

“Professionals usually pivot across one of geography, sector, or function,” she explains, “but pivoting across all three at once, is difficult and therefore rare.”

Inside the Complexity of Private Capital

Today, Amruta rates complex transactions, including collateralized fund obligations and net asset value financings for funds investing in private capital markets. Because many transactions are privately placed, much of the relevant information is not publicly available. For Amruta, that opacity and the analytical challenge it creates are part of the appeal. These instruments often blend characteristics of debt and equity, which she describes as “two ends of the spectrum when you first study finance.” Understanding how those features interact and capturing their nuances through bespoke modeling are what make the work so interesting.

Her role at Fitch has also broadened her exposure to external stakeholders and more complex modeling. Where her earlier work relied on relatively stable analytical models, fund finance requires approaches tailored to the structure and risks of each transaction.

Building Credibility Through Learning

Amruta believes successful credit professionals need to be comfortable with numbers and patient enough to break down complexity. Technical knowledge matters, but so does the ability to demonstrate commitment to the profession.

One of the first milestones she set for herself after joining Fitch Ratings was completing the Global Credit Certificate. She finished both levels within two months. Although Level 1 was part of the standard requirement for her role, she chose to pursue Level 2 as well and earned the MICP designation. “Completing both levels was a proactive choice,” she says. “It helped me demonstrate competence, commitment, and credibility early in my new role.”

Advice for Aspiring Credit Professionals

For those considering a career in credit, Amruta recommends combining formal learning with deliberate relationship-building. “Degree programs create a foundation, but you need credible ways to distinguish yourself in a competitive market. Certifications and networking are two powerful ways to provide evidence of your capabilities,” she says. “They complement each other; neither is a substitute for the other.”

She encourages aspiring professionals to explore the breadth of the field before choosing a path. Speaking with people who already work in different areas of credit can reveal what the day-to-day work involves and help individuals make more informed career decisions. “There is a broad range of careers in credit, so I’d recommend networking to learn more about the different possible career paths. We live in an era in which applying for jobs is extremely easy, but securing an interview is increasingly difficult. Networking can help you gain an edge over other applicants.”