Once upon a time Loan Agreements for most businesses below ‘Corporate level’ were straightforward documents, so actually drawing down the loan once agreed was relatively quick (subject to any additional security documentation). The years post ‘Credit Crunch’ revealed how bank’s documentation had become more complex with ‘Terms & Conditions’ documents (now separate chunky documents available by download) not easily read and digested by borrowers. Most relevant was the inclusion of ‘Covenants’ which would have previously only been included with loans for larger ‘Corporate’ borrowers.

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.