Skip to content
GLOSSARYTERMS AS A CREDIT DESK USES THEM

Swingline

What is a swingline in a syndicated revolving credit facility?

ONE OF 366 TERMS · FREE · NO SIGNUP

BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED

// THE SHORT ANSWER

A swingline is a small sub-facility inside a syndicated revolving credit facility, provided by one or a few of the lenders, that the borrower can draw on the same day it asks, usually for a few days at a time. Ordinary revolver drawings need a few business days' notice, so the swingline covers urgent needs, such as backing commercial paper that cannot be rolled over or a payment that falls due at short notice. It is usually repaid from a normal revolver drawing, and the other lenders often agree to share any swingline loan left unpaid if the borrower defaults.

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.

// WORKED IN

// NEXT TO IT

FACILITIES AND THEIR SHAPE

All 366 terms on one page