The Groundwork.
Every commercial loan answers five questions: who borrows, what is lent, who lends, in what conditions, and by what rules. Each is a tray here, cut into four or five squares, with nothing left out and nothing counted twice.
The In-Tray’s first shelf follows the eight chapters of How Bankers Think. This one is the general knowledge underneath them: the accounts, the contract, the lender’s own balance sheet, the economy and the rules.
- A · 28 FILESThe BorrowerCan this business pay?The borrower's own accounts and business: what it earns, what it collects, what it owes, what it is, and how far its numbers can be trusted.
- A1 Earnings6
- A2 Cash6
- A3 Balance sheet6
- A4 Business6
- A5 Assurance4
- B · 25 FILESThe LoanOn what terms?The contract itself: how much it can carry, what protects it, what it costs, and how its risks are hedged.
- B1 Capacity6
- B2 Protection7
- B3 Price6
- B4 Hedges6
- C · 18 FILESThe BankCan the lender carry it?The lender's own balance sheet: where its money comes from, the capital behind it, the loans going bad, and its exposure to rates.
- C1 Funding and liquidity4
- C2 Capital4
- C3 Asset quality5
- C4 Rate sensitivity5
- D · 18 FILESThe EconomyIn what conditions?What neither side controls: the cycle, interest rates, currencies, and the markets that price collateral.
- D1 Cycle5
- D2 Rates4
- D3 Currency and trade5
- D4 Collateral markets4
- E · 23 FILESThe ConductBy what rules?How the banker behaves: what is kept confidential, what is a conflict, what may not be traded on, what is fair to sell, and whose money the bank must not move.
- E1 Confidentiality4
- E2 Conflicts6
- E3 Market integrity4
- E4 Fair dealing5
- E5 Financial crime4
Every file here works the same way as on the first shelf: make a call, and each option opens with how far it sits from the senior banker’s read. Some are a sum to work out; the read shows the working. Back to the In-Tray →
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The Lab.
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