About
WHAT THIS IS · WHO RUNS IT · WHY IT EXISTS
// WHAT THIS IS
Banking Judgment Lab is a free editorial site about commercial banking judgment — specifically, the kind of credit judgment senior commercial bankers use when reading a borrower, a financial statement, or a facility request.
It publishes short composite case drills, two interactive diagnostic tools, and an editorial newsletter. All of that is free, and will remain free.
It also publishes a paid Lab Vault containing case packs and industry-specific banking toolkits — for readers who want deeper material on a specific situation. The Vault is independent of the free site: buying material doesn't unlock anything else, not buying doesn't gate anything else.
The Lab is published by Highbank Press, an independent publishing imprint focused on commercial credit judgment.
// A NOTE ON THE CASES
All cases, borrowers, persons, and financial figures referenced on Banking Judgment Lab and in any Highbank Press publication are composite illustrations, constructed for teaching purposes. They reflect patterns observed across the author's fifteen years of commercial banking practice but do not represent any actual borrower, transaction, or institution.
This applies without exception to: the drills, the case packs, the toolkits, the diagnostic tools, and any examples used in newsletter or other editorial content. No case represents the policy, practice, or position of any specific institution.
// WHO RUNS IT
Michael Shang has spent fifteen years inside commercial banking across the Beijing and Auckland markets, including roles at Chinese state-owned banks and mainstream New Zealand banks. He is a Chartered Banker, Moody's-certified in credit analysis, and holds an MBA. He writes on commercial credit judgment and cross-border finance.
The Lab reflects what he has learned about commercial credit judgment over those fifteen years — what senior bankers actually look for when they read a file, what junior bankers typically miss, and how the gap between the two closes (or fails to) over the first decade of a banker's career.
// WHY THE LAB EXISTS
Commercial banking judgment is built from cases — many cases, repeated and varied, read against each other over time. A single long-form explanation cannot substitute for that repetition.
The Lab applies frameworks in the open — composite cases with the senior banker's read on each, plus diagnostic tools that let a reader run their own borrower through the same discipline.
The drills are the practice range. The Vault is for readers who want deeper, offline material on a specific situation. Neither gates the other.
// WHAT THIS ISN'T
Banking Judgment Lab is not a course. There are no modules, no certificates, no completion percentages. The work of becoming a better commercial banker is not the kind of work that responds to gamification.
It is also not a coaching service, not a consultancy, and not a recruitment platform. The author has fifteen years of practice, not a coaching practice.
Every piece of analytical content on the Lab is written by Michael Shang. The editorial assumption is that a single banker's voice — well-calibrated, transparent about its own perspective — is more useful to a reader than a chorus of consensus.
// CONTACT
For correspondence: hello@bankingjudgmentlab.com
The Lab does not currently accept guest posts, sponsored content, syndication, or affiliate arrangements. Reader questions about the material are welcome.