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GLOSSARYTERMS AS A CREDIT DESK USES THEM

Majority lenders

What are majority lenders in a syndicated loan, and which decisions need every lender?

ONE OF 209 TERMS · FREE · NO SIGNUP

BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED

// THE SHORT ANSWER

Majority lenders are the group of lenders whose agreement is needed for most decisions under a syndicated or club facility, usually defined as those holding at least two-thirds of the commitments. Waivers and most covenant changes go to them; changes to the money terms, such as margin, maturity, amount or what is secured, usually need every lender. A bank holding a quarter of a four-bank deal can be outvoted on a waiver yet block a cut in its own margin, and telling which is which is part of every amendment.

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.

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