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// ISSUE 03 · LIVE NOW

One short case.
One credit judgment.
Always free.

A free editorial site about commercial banking judgment.

3 cases live·always free
// CURRENT ISSUE
ISSUE 03 / 2026-07-08

Kauri Dairy Holdings

AGRIBUSINESSSUCCESSION★★☆☆☆
THE REQUEST
ExistingNZ$13.0m term + seasonal
ProposedSplit + PG release
Decision byBefore calving (August)

A third-generation Waikato dairy operation. The 68-year-old patriarch is retiring, and the bank hears about the succession plan from the family's accountant first — a security reshuffle, a guarantee release, and two successor entities. Read the file. Make the call.

Open the case
// FY25 SNAPSHOT
SOURCE: COMPANY-PREPARED · UNAUDITED · COMPOSITE CASE — FICTIONAL
PAYOUT
NZ$8.60
cycle high
DEBT / kgMS
NZ$21.0
median ~$19
DRAWINGS
+65%
in two years
INTEREST COVER
2.4×
at 6.5% avg rate
MILK SOLIDS
620k
kgMS, two farms
FIGURES ROUNDED · FY25 (FYE 2026-01-31) · COMPOSITE CASE — FICTIONAL
// FROM THE BOOK

How Bankers Think

Inside Commercial Banking's Hidden Curriculum

The way commercial bankers actually think — the temperament the interview is really testing, made explicit.

Commercial banking is defined less by technical content — learnable in a year — than by a specific way of looking at the world. Eight chapters and three appendices set out the frameworks senior bankers use and the dispositions they listen for.

BY MICHAEL SHANG · HIGHBANK PRESS

Paperback, ebook, and hardcover · First edition 2026 · 370 pages

How Bankers Think — book cover
// HOW IT WORKS
01

Read the case packet in about seven minutes.

02

Make your call before seeing the editorial breakdown.

03

Compare your call with the senior banker's read each cycle.