Debt Exposure Assessment is an assessment of total debt obligations across the borrower, group, existing bankers, proposed facilities, guarantees, and off-balance-sheet commitments. It helps understand leverage and repayment capacity. In MSME credit, it converts borrower behaviour, financial signals, compliance gaps or business dependencies into a clearer risk view for approval and monitoring. For example, an early warning indicator may not require immediate rejection, but it should trigger deeper checks, conditions, monitoring actions or approval escalation. It matters because it helps the lender decide whether to proceed, add conditions, seek mitigants, reduce exposure or monitor the account more closely. The common mistake is to treat the indicator as a final decision by itself; it should be supported by evidence, trend analysis and credit judgement.