An experienced Fidelity Investment analyst who built a macro-integrated risk framework trusted by senior portfolio managers explains why monitoring covenant health is the hardest and most overlooked job in structured finance
Private credit and traditional lenders are fighting over the same borrowers. According to Moody’s global leveraged finance outlook, the competition is weakening protective clauses, known as covenants, within collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). As more corporate loans are pooled and sold to institutional investors, and risks continue to build into 2026, rigorous credit monitoring is becoming more critical than ever.
Juhi Dharamveer Doshi understands these dynamics through her own professional experience. A CLO Investment Services Analyst at Fidelity Investments in Boston, she has worked across the full spectrum of structured finance, from credit research on CLO collateral portfolios to investor reporting across ten live deals valued at $250–$350 million each. At Fidelity, she developed a framework that layers macroeconomic stress scenarios directly into covenant and collateral analysis, and senior portfolio managers have come to rely on her work when evaluating non-standard transactions during periods of rate volatility. A Gold Medalist from Gujarat Technological University, an Erasmus+ scholarship recipient, an International Award Alliance Top Award holder, and an Alliance Association member, she uses her expertise to support the company’s surveillance protocols used to monitor data accuracy. We asked Doshi how that discipline protects CLO portfolios from drifting into undetected risk when market conditions reward complacency.
Juhi, covenants in new deals are getting weaker, and loan spreads are tightening. What actually goes wrong inside a portfolio when those guardrails erode?
From my perspective, weaker deal protections combined with tighter spreads can make risk feel well-contained at the outset. At closing, a deal can appear strong across all key metrics. Then the environment begins to evolve, and small shifts start to accumulate. I’ve seen how those gradual changes can reshape a portfolio without drawing immediate attention.
I believe staying closely attuned to those developments makes all the difference. Portfolio management today requires a continuous dialogue with the data and a willingness to refine your view as conditions develop. When that mindset is in place, you are better equipped to navigate change and maintain a consistent risk profile.
Your framework integrates macro scenarios: rate movements, inflation stress, into collateral and covenant analysis. What does that look like in practice?
In my experience, most conventional evaluations look backward, how similar deals performed, and where spreads sit relative to history. I built my framework to flip that orientation. I take the actual structure of a deal, its waterfall, its eligibility criteria, its concentration limits, and stress it against conditions it has not lived through yet. For example, I model what happens if rates jump sharply while a cluster of borrowers in the same industry weakens at once, or if inflation stays elevated longer than the market expects. I’ve found that running those scenarios before a problem surfaces in performance data is what separates proactive risk management from damage control.
When senior portfolio managers bring you a non-standard transaction, something that doesn’t fit existing templates, how do you approach it?
I always start with the documentation: waterfall mechanics, covenant definitions, and eligibility criteria. Understanding the unique logic of each deal is paramount, a step that must precede broader macro analysis. Only after thoroughly mapping this fundamental structure do I create scenario diagnostics specifically tailored to that deal’s risk profile, avoiding the use of a generalized stress template. That specificity is exactly what senior portfolio managers need when their standard tools fall short.
In 2024, you received the International Alliance Award and later became a member of the Alliance Top Association. What has that recognition meant for your work in structured finance?
Honestly, external recognition matters most when it reinforces the direction you’ve already chosen. Receiving the Alliance Award and then joining their association confirmed that the approach I had been developing, integrating macro stress analysis directly into structured credit evaluation, resonated beyond my immediate team. Being part of the Association also broadened my perspective. Engaging with professionals across different institutions helps me refine how I think about risk, and I’ve brought several of those insights into my current daily work at Fidelity.
You have spoken about moving from behind-the-scenes analytics to presenting investment theses directly to senior stakeholders. How did that shift happen?
I think every structured credit professional goes through a phase where the models absorb all your attention. CLO documentation alone can consume every working hour if you let it, and honestly, you need that immersion to build real expertise. I eventually recognized that merely housing expertise in a spreadsheet wouldn’t impact portfolio decisions. The pivotal moment came when I grasped that if my understanding of a position’s underlying assumptions surpassed everyone else’s, I had a duty to the process to voice my perspective. Initially, advocating for a viewpoint before key decision-makers was challenging. Now, I consider it the most vital aspect of my role.
Mentoring junior analysts is part of your current role. What do you focus on when someone is new to structured finance?
Why does a waterfall exist? What is a covenant actually protecting? If you can answer those questions, the technical skills come fast. If you cannot, no amount of modeling will save you. I also care about who enters this field. At a personal level, my mission centers on expanding access to financial knowledge, particularly for women and young professionals entering systems that too often seem designed to keep people out.
We started this conversation with a market where covenants are loosening, and spreads are tightening. What does that environment demand from the next generation of structured credit professionals?
Discipline over comfort – that is what I keep coming back to. When the market looks calm, the temptation is to relax your monitoring standards, and that is precisely when you should not. My long-term goal is to become a thought leader in macro-integrated fixed-income strategy and to take on broader leadership in institutional asset management. But the conviction behind all of it is something. My conviction is that increasing the number of individuals entering structured finance who possess robust analytical skills and a propensity to challenge assumptions will significantly diminish the likelihood that systemic risk will remain concealed.
