Covenant Tracker

Stay one step ahead of the violation

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Inspiration

The syndicated loan market manages trillions of euros in facilities, yet covenant management remains stuck in the past. Facility agents still track compliance in spreadsheets. Waiver requests bounce between parties via email for weeks. Lenders lack real-time visibility into their portfolio's covenant health. And as ESG-linked loans grow 35% year-over-year, there's no integrated solution connecting sustainability metrics to loan management. We saw an opportunity to bring the LMA ecosystem into the digital age—creating a unified platform where agents, lenders, and borrowers collaborate transparently, where breaches are detected instantly rather than discovered too late, and where ESG compliance is built-in rather than bolted-on.

What it does

Covenant Tracker is a real-time covenant management platform for syndicated loans that connects all parties in the LMA ecosystem:

  • Real-time Monitoring: Automated covenant tracking with instant status calculation (Compliant, At Risk, Breach) and headroom analysis
  • Smart Alerts: Proactive notifications for approaching thresholds, upcoming maturities, and compliance issues
  • Digital Waiver Workflow: LMA-compliant process from request to lender voting to approval—in days, not weeks
  • ESG Integration: Full support for Green Loan Principles (GLP) and Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles (SLLP) with borrower submissions and agent validation
  • Multi-party Collaboration: Role-based access for Facility Agents, Lenders, and Borrowers on a single platform
  • ML Breach Prediction: Machine learning model that identifies loans likely to breach before they do
  • Export & Reporting: One-click PDF compliance certificates and Excel exports for audit trails

How we built it

We chose a modern, scalable architecture designed for both cloud deployment and offline desktop use:

  • Frontend: React 18 with Tailwind CSS for a responsive, professional UI. Recharts for data visualization, Lucide for icons.
  • Backend: Supabase providing PostgreSQL database, real-time subscriptions, authentication, and Edge Functions for email notifications.
  • Security: Row Level Security (RLS) ensuring users only access authorized data. Role-based permissions at application level.
  • Desktop App: Electron wrapper with Better-SQLite3 for offline-first functionality—agents can work without internet and sync when connected.
  • Data Integration: PapaParse for CSV import, XLSX for Excel operations, jsPDF with AutoTable for PDF generation.
  • Internationalization: Full bilingual support (English/French) for the European market.
  • ML Pipeline: Breach prediction model trained on historical covenant data to provide early warnings.
  • REST API: External integration endpoints for third-party systems.

Challenges we ran into

Designing a secure multi-tenant system: Ensuring that borrowers only see their loans, lenders only see their participations, and agents have appropriate oversight required careful RLS policy design and testing. LMA-compliant waiver workflow: The multi-step process (Draft, Review, Negotiation, Voting, Approval) with participation-weighted voting needed precise state management and edge case handling. Dual-mode architecture: Supporting both cloud (Supabase) and offline (SQLite) modes with the same React codebase required abstracting the data layer and implementing mode detection. ESG validation workflow: Building a submission and approval process for ESG metrics that matches real-world agent workflows while remaining intuitive for borrowers. Real-time without complexity: Implementing live updates for covenant changes, alert triggers, and waiver votes using Supabase Realtime while keeping the client code manageable.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Complete MVP in 48 hours: Full-featured application with 3 distinct user roles, each with tailored dashboards and workflows
  • Production-ready waiver system: The entire LMA waiver lifecycle digitized with voting, negotiation, and audit trails
  • ESG-first design: Not an afterthought—sustainability-linked loans and ESG covenants are core features
  • ML integration: Breach prediction model that adds genuine predictive value for risk management
  • Beautiful, professional UI: A polished interface that financial professionals would actually want to use
  • Bilingual from day one: Complete English and French translations throughout the application
  • Desktop + Web: Same codebase deploys as web app or native desktop application

What we learned

  • Syndicated loan complexity: Deep understanding of facility agreements, covenant types (financial, informational, ESG), and the roles of agents, lenders, and borrowers
  • LMA standards: Practical application of Green Loan Principles and Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles in software
  • Multi-party collaboration patterns: How to design systems where different parties have different views of the same data
  • Supabase power features: RLS policies, realtime subscriptions, and Edge Functions for a complete backend-as-a-service solution
  • Electron offline patterns: Strategies for hybrid apps that work seamlessly online and offline

What's next for Covenant Tracker

  • Pilot partnerships: Engage 3-5 Facility Agents for real-world testing and feedback
  • Document AI: Automatic covenant extraction from facility agreement PDFs using NLP
  • Bloomberg/Reuters integration: Real-time market data feeds for enhanced analytics
  • Mobile companion app: Push notifications and quick status checks on the go
  • Enhanced ML: Expand prediction models to cover margin adjustments and market conditions
  • API marketplace: Third-party integrations with loan origination systems and treasury platforms
  • Regulatory reporting: Automated generation of regulatory compliance reports

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