Credit teams sit at one of the most critical intersections in a midstream organization. They are responsible for safeguarding financial exposure, managing counterparties, and protecting margins — often with fragmented tools, slow data, and limited visibility.
Yet most midstream companies still rely on credit features buried inside ETRMs or spreadsheets, neither of which were designed to support modern credit workflows.
Today’s credit teams need something different:
A standalone credit system that gives them visibility, speed, control, and protection — without waiting on IT or replacing existing systems.
This is where TIES (The Integrated Energy System) provides unique value.
TIES Credit operates as a self-contained, standalone credit module that integrates cleanly with whatever systems you already use — from your ETRM to your scheduling and settlement tools.
And it brings modern credit risk management to the midstream industry in a way legacy platforms simply can’t.
#What Midstream Credit Teams Actually Need
When we talk with credit professionals across the midstream sector—whether they're managing natural gas pipelines, NGL processing, or refined products terminals—we hear consistent priorities:
“We don’t need another giant system. We just need accurate exposure, faster reporting, clean audit trails, and a way to catch deteriorating credits before they become problems.”
A standalone credit system matters because it delivers exactly that:
Exposure accuracy across all commodities and legal entities
A dedicated system ensures every exposure number is correct — without waiting on overnight ETRM runs.
Real-time visibility into limits, ratings, collateral, and concentration
Standalone credit means the team sees everything in one place, instantly.
Fast reporting without Excel dependency
No more stitching together spreadsheets or waiting for IT to refresh data sources.
Strong audit trails that reduce internal friction
A centralized system maintains clean histories for ratings, limits, approvals, and deteriorations.
Integration without IT disruption
Standalone credit means no ETRM surgery, no multi-year rollout, no upstream dependency risk.
Lower total cost of ownership
You get a transformation without the platform replacement costs.
#The Daily Reality: Why Credit Still Struggles With Legacy Tools
Despite sitting at the center of risk management, credit teams often work with tools that actively hold them back. Here's what that looks like in practice:
Delayed exposure numbers from ETRMs
Most ETRMs (Energy Trading and Risk Management systems) were built for traders, not credit analysts. Credit exposure is calculated downstream, often running once overnight. If exposure moves significantly during the day—say, a counterparty books large volumes of firm transport for winter—your credit team might not know until the next morning.
Slow IT queues
Need to add a new field to track collateral types? Want to change how concentration is calculated? Even small requests can take weeks or months as they compete with trading desk priorities and system upgrade cycles.
Manual spreadsheets that carry operational risk
Spreadsheets introduce errors, create version control problems, and depend on individual knowledge. When your senior credit analyst goes on vacation, does anyone else know which Excel file has the current limits?
Rating and limit updates stored in email, SharePoint, or personal files
Rating updates in email. Limit approvals in SharePoint. Collateral agreements in shared drives. Financial statements in personal folders. No single source of truth means no organizational control—and increased risk during audits or staff transitions.
Weak early warning signals
Most teams discover deteriorating credits too late because their systems don't track trends or send automated alerts. By the time exposure reaches 90% of limit or a parent company's rating drops two notches, the problem may already require emergency action.
No ownership from credit teams
Credit is always downstream—trapped behind the limitations and priorities of trading or accounting systems. The credit team can't make changes, can't control workflows, and can't get the data they need when they need it.
This is exactly why standalone credit systems exist:
To give credit teams the independence, visibility, and control they’ve never had.
#What a Standalone Midstream Credit System Should Deliver
Modern credit teams need technology that matches the pace and complexity of today’s markets.
A true standalone system should give them:
Visibility: A Single Source of Truth
Every counterparty. Every commodity. Every legal entity. Every exposure snapshot. All consolidated in one place with data you can trust.
Standalone credit gives you uninterrupted visibility even when upstream systems are delayed, undergoing maintenance, or experiencing data quality issues. Whether you're evaluating a local distribution company's gas transport capacity or a refinery's products offtake agreement, you have complete information at your fingertips.
Speed: Real-Time Credit Intelligence
Standalone credit decouples your workflows from slow batch processing cycles. This means morning exposure reports are ready instantly, rating and limit changes are reflected immediately, and you receive live alerts when exposures move or concentrations shift.
Speed isn't just about convenience—it protects your business. In midstream operations, where capacity is often contracted months in advance and counterparties can quickly face liquidity pressures during market volatility, timely information can mean the difference between managing a situation and absorbing a loss.
Control: Standardized, Rule-Based Workflows
With a standalone solution, the credit team finally has full ownership of its processes. You can establish standardized approval workflows, automate limit and rating updates, set alerts driven by rules rather than manual observation, manage hierarchical counterparty structures, and maintain complete audit trails—all without relying on IT or other system owners.
Everything is controlled, documented, and consistent. When a counterparty subsidiary's parent company experiences financial stress, the system automatically flags all related entities in your portfolio. When exposure approaches preset thresholds, alerts go to the right people without manual monitoring.
Protection: Early Warning Signals That Catch Deterioration Early
A standalone credit system transforms your approach from reactive to proactive. Rather than discovering problems after they've materialized, the system continuously monitors exposure creep, rating downgrades, increased concentration, collateral shortages, and counterparty hierarchy deterioration.
These early warning signals let you act before a credit concern becomes a business crisis—whether that means calling for additional collateral, reducing exposure, or escalating to senior management for strategic decisions.
#Why TIES Credit Is Built for Midstream Companies
TIES Credit is designed specifically to address the credit challenges midstream companies face, without forcing you to replace what's already working:
Lightweight deployment
Get a fully functional credit system without a year-long project.
Straightforward integration (no ETRM redesign)
We integrate cleanly with whatever you use today — without breaking existing workflows.
Daily exposure reporting you can trust
Fast, accurate, and complete — across every commodity and entity.
Full counterparty files
Hierarchy, ratings, limits, collateral, concentration, documentation — all in one place.
Automated rule-based alerts
For exposure spikes, deteriorating ratings, collateral gaps, or concentration changes.
Lower cost than custom builds or legacy expansions
You avoid the typical multimillion-dollar IT rebuild.
Keeps everything else you use today
Because it is standalone, you don’t need to rip out your ETRM, ETMS, or accounting systems.
#What You Get With TIES Credit
TIES gives your team a complete credit management system built around live data, flexible dashboards, and fast reporting. You manage everything in one place, from counterparty setup to exposure monitoring and approvals.
Counterparty and Agreement Management
Store business associates, addresses, contacts, types, and related records.
Track contracts, netting, collateral terms, and supporting documents.
Maintain LOCs, guarantees, cash deposits, bonds, and renewal details.
Search across all fields with little effort.
Credit Setup and Ratings
Configure limits by internal company and by product type such as gas, NGL, or crude.
Assign primary products to align each profile with its exposure class.
Track internal ratings, external ratings, alerts, expiration, and history.
Exposure Coverage
View aged, pre settlement, estimated, and current month positions.
Tie exposures directly to live trades.
Robust and easy reporting for pivots, alternate views
Dashboards
Overview dashboard highlights exposures, limits, and exceptions.
Counterparty dashboard shows every detail for a selected entity.
Add or rearrange panels without technical work.
Reporting
Credit Detail Report shows limits, exposure buckets, and over limit items.
Group by company, product class, or guarantor.
Handle complex hierarchies such as multiple subsidiaries rolling to a single guarantor.
Use formatted reports for monthly reviews.
Excel integration provides live pivots and roll ups.
Schedule automated deliveries by email.
APIs make all data available for downstream tools.
External Exposure Integration
Import exposures from systems such as RightAngle or spreadsheets.
Include trade IDs, locations, strategies, and descriptions.
Consolidate external and internal views into a single report.
Workflow, Audit, and Security
Route credit changes through approvals.
Track every update in a complete audit log.
Support single sign on and two factor authentication.
Use role-based permissions for strong access control.
Optional ETRM
Pair with the TIES ETRM for a unified trading and credit workflow.
Or operate TIES credit as a standalone module.
#Conclusion: Credit Needs Independence, Not More Complexity
The midstream credit function is too important, and the market is too fast, for credit to live inside outdated modules or manual spreadsheets.
A dedicated, standalone credit system gives teams:
The visibility they’ve been missing
The speed they’ve been asking for
The control they deserve
The protection leadership demands
And TIES Credit delivers exactly that: a modern, integrated, low-lift solution that works with your existing systems, not against them.
If your credit team still depends on spreadsheets, delayed ETRM feeds, or scattered approval workflows…it’s time to give them the standalone system they’ve always needed.
Ready to see how TIES can transform your credit operations? Contact us for a personalized demonstration tailored to your company's specific midstream operations and credit workflows.
