Preliminary Assessment of Loan Suitability Worksheet

This worksheet records the preliminary assessment of whether a credit product appears not unsuitable for a borrower. It captures the borrower details, the product assessed, the information relied upon, and the key factors behind the outcome. It also leaves a retention trail so the assessment can be retrieved later if the client requests it.

Complete it before the credit product is recommended, approved, or documented as suitable for the borrower. It is most useful after you have enough verified information to assess income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and product terms. If the borrower’s circumstances change, update the worksheet before relying on the earlier assessment.

The assessor or lending officer who reviewed the borrower’s information should complete it, with the assessor name and role recorded in the submission notice. In many workflows, a supervisor or compliance reviewer may later check the file, but the original assessment should identify who made the determination. That makes the audit trail clearer if the file is reviewed later.

Use the information actually considered in the decision, such as verified income, income sources, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Do not list fields that were not reviewed or data that was collected but not used. If the borrower provided incomplete information, note the gap and any follow-up required rather than implying the assessment was fully informed.

It creates a structured record of the assessment outcome, the supporting factors, and the retention location and period. That helps with audit trail expectations and makes it easier to respond to a client request for the record later. The retention section also reminds the team to store the worksheet where it can be retrieved under the applicable consumer credit process.

Yes. You can tailor the product section for personal loans, secured loans, lines of credit, or refinancing workflows, and adjust the risk and restriction fields to match your underwriting process. Keep the core structure intact so the assessment still shows what was reviewed, what was concluded, and what follow-up remains.

Common mistakes include leaving the relied-upon information blank, writing vague reasons like "looks fine," and failing to record conditions or restrictions. Another frequent issue is collecting more personal data than needed, which conflicts with data minimization. A clear submission notice and retention note also get missed, which weakens the record.

An ad-hoc note may explain the decision, but it usually does not capture the same fields in a consistent order or preserve the retention details. This template gives you a repeatable record with explicit sections for assessment outcome, supporting factors, risks, and follow-up. That makes reviews faster and reduces the chance that key facts are omitted.