ISSUE 01 · COMPOSITE CASE
Pacific Premium Foods
Premium ready meals
- REVENUE, TWO YEARS
- +50%US$28m → US$42m
- THE ASK
- +US$1.5mWorking capital line US$3.5m → US$5.0m
How a bank
reads a business.
The commercial banker's judgment, from every chair at the table.
Explained in guides, practised in cases and one-minute files, applied with tools — your call first, then the senior banker's. Free, and always.
- guides
- 73explain the read
- cases
- 10read from 20 chairs
- one-minute files
- 172a new one every day
- all of it, always
- Freeno account, no paywall
SAME REQUEST
Two manufacturers. One gets the yes.
ISSUE 04 · COMPOSITE CASE
Highview Industries
Precision sheet metal
- REVENUE, TWO YEARS
- +36%US$28m → US$38m
- THE ASK
- +US$1.5mWorking capital line US$2.5m → US$4.0m
Which one would you back?
COMPOSITE TEACHING CASES — FICTIONAL · ALL 10 CASES →
WHO THIS IS FOR
10 CASES · 20 CHAIRS · 3 TOOLS · 73 GUIDES · ALL FREEGETTING IN
22 GUIDES · 4 QUIZZES · 1 FREE CASE
You're preparing for a commercial banking interview, or moving into credit from somewhere else.
Through this doorON THE DESK
10 CASES · 3 TOOLS · 22 GUIDES
You're on a lending desk, first book or fifteenth year, and want your read against a senior's.
Through this doorFOR BORROWERS
27 GUIDES · 1 TOOL · 11 CHAIRS
You're the founder, owner or CFO whose facility is up for review.
Through this doorHOW A BANK WORKS
7 GUIDES · 5 CHAIRS · THE BOOK
You hold the shares, read the results, or just want to know what a bank actually does with your money.
Through this doorNot sure which door, or want the whole order? The reading orders, door by door
THE IN-TRAY
Where do you read from?
24 files, 20 minutes, one card: three short credit files from each chapter of How Bankers Think, each call read against a senior banker’s.
START THE PLACEMENT →NO SIGNUP · NO SCORE
TODAY'S FILE · 2026-10-12
THE CALL · CHAPTER 3
A seasonal toy importer asks for a five-year US$2m term loan 'for working capital'. Its stock peaks every October and is gone by January.
What is your first response?
1 FILES · PICK A CALL ON ANY OF THEM
THIS WEEK ON THE DESK
ISSUE 10 / 2026-10-06
The Dissent
INTERNALCOMMITTEEDIFFICULTY 3/5 · 6 MIN
The credit paper recommends a US$3.5m expansion revolver for Fernbrook Foodservice, a wholesale distributor to cafés and restaurants. The receivables in the body are net of US$1.8m in customer advances, disclosed only in appendix four, and 31% of the growth revenue ships with return rights. You are the third vote of five, the most junior at the table, and the agenda is forty minutes late.
Open the caseTHE REQUEST
The paperUS$3.5m · recommends approve
YouThird vote of five · most junior
TimeNinety seconds, if you want it
CREDIT COMMITTEE
- The chair called it straightforward.
- You read appendix four last night.
- The RM has eighteen years on you.
FY25 SNAPSHOT
SOURCE: COMPANY-PREPARED · UNAUDITED · COMPOSITE CASE — FICTIONAL
FACILITY ASK
US$3.5m
▲expansion revolver
AR (AS PRESENTED)
US$6.2m
▲net figure
CUSTOMER ADVANCES
US$1.8m
▼netted · appendix 4
NEW-REGION REVENUE
31%
▼with return rights
AGENDA
+40 min
▼running late
FIGURES ROUNDED · THE PAPER (as tabled · composite case) · COMPOSITE CASE — FICTIONAL
THE OLDEST QUESTION IN LENDING
Character first. Cash flow first. Collateral second.
1912
“Is not commercial credit based primarily upon money or property?”
“No, sir; the first thing is character.”
2020
“Collateral should be considered the institution's second way out.”
A century apart, the same answer: a bank lends on the business, and reads its cash before it believes its profit. Every page on this site is that read, from one chair or another.
HOW BANKS WORK →CREDIT ANALYSIS FOR BEGINNERS →HOW BANKS APPROVE BUSINESS LOANS →
HIGHBANK
Every case lives on one street.
10 files and 20 chairs: the borrower, the banker and everyone with a stake in the call.
Every case is set in one continuing world. Walk the Highbank street — one building per file, in the order the bank met them.
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
FROM THE LAB VAULT
TOOLKIT · LIVEUS$19
Manufacturing Banking Toolkit
A senior banker's reading guide to manufacturing facility reviews. 20-page PDF + 9-sheet Excel workbook.
View
TOOLKIT · LIVEUS$19
Trade & Export Banking Toolkit
A senior banker's reading guide to exporter facility reviews. 20-page PDF + 10-sheet Excel workbook.
View
CASE PACK · LIVEUS$39
Banking Interview Case Pack Vol 1
Four composite cases with the senior banker's read. 42-page PDF + Excel workbook.
View
MAKE YOUR CALL FIRST
The Lab
One case file and one question, in your inbox every Tuesday morning, New Zealand time. The senior banker's read opens only after you answer.
FREE WITH IT · THREE PDFS
An interview case, an annotated credit paper, and a one-page loan application sheet.