M Recent financial applications of expert systems include: decision analysis in securities trading [1], cash flow analysis [12], and venture capital analysis for small telecommunication companies [4]. Another problem area that can benefit from this technology is commercial loan analysis, the process of evaluating a company's financial strengths and weaknesses. To correctly perform the analysis, commercial loan officers need to have an understanding of the primary Cs of lending: credit, collateral, capital, capacity, and character [13]. As commercial loan officers evaluate a company, they examine numerous financial ratios, percentages, and trends, and perform many interrelated analyses. Because the complex nature of the problem requires experience and precludes the use of simple algorithms, expert systems are appropriate for this type of loosely structured, complex problem. This article describes an expert system, Commercial Loan Analysis Support System (CLASS) [3]. The system uses rules and heuristics obtained from a com-
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