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Reference Architecture for Credit Loss Forecasting

Unify loan portfolios, economic scenarios and risk models on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to power scalable, transparent, auditable and cost-efficient CECL and stress testing.

Reference Architecture for Credit Loss Forecasting — CECL and Stress Test

What you’ll learn:

  • An end-to-end lakehouse architecture for ingesting and unifying retail loans, commercial loans, general ledger (GL) and macroeconomic scenario data
  • How Lakehouse Federation and Lakeflow Connect support secure, scalable and data integration across cloud and on-premises systems
  • The use of lakehouse to standardize, reconcile and quality-check data for downstream model execution
  • How to operationalize models built in Python, R or SAS using Mosaic AI and orchestrate workflows with Databricks Workflows
  • A scalable compute layer using Databricks clusters to support large-scale CECL and stress testing
  • A centralized data and model catalog, security model and controls with Unity Catalog to enforce data lineage, auditability and regulatory compliance
  • How Lakehouse Apps enables secure collaboration, adjustments and forecast sign-off between credit risk and finance teams

 

Modernize Your Credit Loss Forecasting for CECL and Stress Test

  1. Portfolio data sources and ingestion
    • Access and ingest retail loans, commercial loans and related exposure data
    • Ingest GL data, including account counts and outstanding balances, for reconciliation and data integrity
    • Use Lakeflow Connect for native, CDC-based ingestion from on-premises or cloud data systems, or leverage Lakehouse Federation for secure, scalable and duplication-free data access
  2. Macroeconomic scenario data
    • Connect and source macroeconomic scenario data, such as Moody’s scenarios, via APIs
    • Incorporate custom scenario expansion logic or ingest internal scenario datasets directly into the platform
  3. Data governance and management
    • Utilize Unity Catalog to centralize metadata governance across portfolio data, scenario data, model outputs, overlays and disclosure reporting. Lineage tracking ensures data reliability and audit readiness.
    • Enable multi-asset class integration, standardizing retail and commercial loan data with row-level access controls
    • Perform data quality checks and GL reconciliation into curated Silver tables and sign off on data controls
    • Leverage system tables and embedded audit trails for full auditability and compliance with regulatory standards
  4. Implement model execution
    • Implement or import models developed in Python, R or SAS. Register models in MLflow.
    • Define logic for variable derivation, model scoring and expected credit loss (ECL) calculations by scenario and time horizon
  5. CECL and stress test workflows
    • Build workflows for scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis and attribution analysis
    • Execute workflows at scale using Databricks Workflows, providing automation, monitoring and scheduling for complex model pipelines
  6. Business intelligence
    • Use Databricks SQL to review and analyze portfolio data and scenario data
    • Conduct loan-level credit loss analysis for each scenario and horizon
    • Explore results interactively and validate assumptions with full transparency and traceability
  7. Credit risk and finance collaboration
    • Enable real-time collaboration between credit risk and finance teams via Lakehouse Apps (web applications)
    • Upload end user computing spreadsheets to support individual assessments
    • Apply management overlays and sign-off controls, and integrate with downstream risk and finance systems for GL posting, disclosure reporting and more

 

Benefits

  1. Regulatory compliance and auditability
    Ensure compliance with CECL, CCAR, IFRS 9 and other regulatory frameworks through automated data lineage, embedded controls and audit-ready workflows
  2. Scalable performance for complex calculations
    Run credit loss models and scenarios with ease using autoscaling Databricks clusters designed for compute-intensive financial workloads
  3. Cost-efficient architecture
    Leverage a consumption-based pricing model with no additional software licensing fees — resulting in lower TCO and flexible resource usage aligned to your demand
  4. Secure, enterprise-ready platform
    Built-in security, identity management and governance capabilities ensure sensitive risk data is protected and managed in accordance with enterprise and regulatory standards
  5. Self-service with full customization
    Enable internal teams to own and adapt their modeling environment through a self-service platform, while still supporting full customization, automation and integration with enterprise systems

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