Availability (borrowing base)

BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED 2026-11-01

// THE SHORT ANSWER

Availability is what a business can actually draw under an asset-based facility at a given moment: its eligible collateral multiplied by the advance rate, less any reserves, and never more than the facility limit. It moves with the collateral — falling as customers pay, rising as new invoices are raised — so the headline limit and the money available can be far apart. Availability contracts exactly when a weakening business needs it most, as debtors age past eligibility and disputes grow.

BASIS  Practitioner judgment from sixteen years in commercial banking, set out in How Bankers Think (Highbank Press, 2026). Every borrower on this site is a composite constructed for teaching, not a client. The market is mid-market commercial lending as practised in New Zealand and Australia; where a convention differs elsewhere, the page says so.