On an equal footing

Credit analysts and portfolio managers often make for uneasy bedfellows. Analysts feel, sometimes justifiably, that their contribution is undervalued. To solve this problem, some fund managers have taken to combining the two roles, as Laurence Neville discovers

Credit analysts are a curious bunch. Occasionally eccentric, often bespectacled, always enthusiastic about the sort of details others wouldn’t notice, they are necessarily bookish people. But some analysts are angry. They feel that prima donna portfolio managers get all the recognition for their hard work while they are ignored.

Fund management firms have a variety of ways of structuring analysts’ input and of rewarding them. Traditionally analysts have played second fiddle to portfolio managers