I’ve just been approached to help understand some technical issues on a very long established loan with ‘British Linen’ – an old merchant bank, as they were referred to. It just so happened that I already had some unique knowledge of this.

There was a time that we regarded the difference between a graduate and a ‘great graduate’ to be down to ‘Emotional Intelligence’ – how they interacted with the world and people around them. Now the expression seems to be about ‘Social Capital’ – how people work in networks and build relationships.

Yesterday’s release of the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) report on ‘underwriting standards’ for the B2L market has confirmed that there are yet further issues ahead for existing landlords with B2L mortgages.

Research undertaken by NatWest showed that the most common stress point in the relationship between a business and its banker is when a borrowing application is declined. The fact is that bankers are not very good at explaining or justifying these decisions….