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GLOSSARYTERMS AS A CREDIT DESK USES THEM

Panel valuer

What is a panel valuer, and why will a bank not accept any valuation?

ONE OF 366 TERMS · FREE · NO SIGNUP

BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED

// THE SHORT ANSWER

A panel valuer is a valuer, or valuation firm, on a bank's approved list, instructed by the bank or by a panel manager acting for it, and reporting to the bank directly. Banks keep panels so that the valuer owes its duty to the lender, holds the qualifications and insurance the bank requires, and is not chosen by the borrower whose loan depends on the figure. A valuation the borrower commissioned from someone off the panel is often refused, or accepted only with a reliance letter and a review. Spreading instructions across the panel is part of the same control.

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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