What it is
ProSpread is real spreading software, which is worth stating because S&P is usually assumed to sell data and scoring rather than a spreading tool. It uses OCR plus natural language processing to extract and spread PDF financial statements, maps them to the Capital IQ standard chart of accounts, lists ratio analysis as a feature, and improves its own mapping over time. The Capital IQ mapping is the point of it: a spread that lands in the same chart of accounts as S&P's own data lets a credit team compare a private borrower against a large body of public and private company financials without a translation step. The limits are equally clear. No tax return support is named, no global cash flow, no covenants. There are no published customers and no size targeting. And it is sold as an add-on to a Credit Analytics subscription rather than as software a credit department can buy on its own. For a US community bank whose typical borrower hands over three years of returns rather than audited statements, that combination puts it outside the shortlist. The correct product name for this capability is ProSpread, not Capital IQ Pro and not Credit Analytics.
What it does
- OCR plus natural language processing extraction from PDF financial statements
- Mapping to the Capital IQ standard chart of accounts
- Ratio analysis on the resulting spread
- Mapping that improves itself as more statements are processed
Strengths
- Mapping into the Capital IQ standard chart of accounts makes a private borrower directly comparable against S&P's own financial data set
- Genuine extraction technology rather than a data feed, using OCR and natural language processing on PDF statements
- Self-improving mapping, so accuracy on a recurring borrower's statement format should rise over time
- Carries the vendor-risk and continuity profile of a very large financial data publisher
Considerations
- No tax return support is named anywhere, which removes it from consideration for most US small-business and community bank credit files
- No global cash flow and no covenant handling, so entity-plus-guarantor analysis has to happen somewhere else
- Sold as an add-on to a Credit Analytics subscription rather than as standalone spreading software, so the entry cost is a data contract
- No published customers, no asset-size targeting and no pricing
- Frequently confused with S&P's other products. The spreading capability is ProSpread specifically, and asking for Capital IQ Pro or Credit Analytics gets a different conversation
Best when
You already subscribe to Credit Analytics and want spreads that live in the same chart of accounts as your benchmark data.
Where it ranks
S&P Global ProSpread FAQ
Does ProSpread read tax returns?
No tax return support is named in its material. It is built around PDF financial statements mapped to the Capital IQ chart of accounts, which suits audited-statement borrowers and not the tax-return-first files most US community banks work with.
Can ProSpread be bought on its own?
No. It is sold as an add-on to a Credit Analytics subscription, so the real entry price is the data contract underneath it.
Is this the same as Capital IQ Pro?
No, and the confusion is common enough to be worth naming. The spreading product is ProSpread. Capital IQ Pro and Credit Analytics are different products, and asking for them by name gets a data conversation rather than a spreading one.