I’m sure all of us have bad days. In some jobs, however, a bad day can mean the difference between life and death. Take an engineer designing a new bridge that thousands of cars will use. If that engineer comes to work all crabby the chance of them making a mistake will increase. In this severe example, the results can be tragic.
At the other end of the scale, an error by the checkout person at the supermarket may cost you a few bucks but it’s not going to kill you.
So where do bad days by bankers fit on this scale?
It depends.
If a teller makes a mistake, the error can usually be righted as there will often be an audit trail of the transaction.
But I’ve seen really good business transaction be shot down by a credit manager simply because the credit manager wants to take the banker down a peg or two or they simply don’t like the banker.
These days when we present a business transaction to a bank we ask that bank’s BDM what the banker’s relationship is like with credit.
As silly as this sounds, it’s an important question to ask. While we’re vetting, we also ensure that the banker gets the numbers underlying the transaction. Obviously very important. But if the numbers are open to interpretation (cash flow forecasts for example) we need to ensure that the client’s plans for the business are both achievable and believable.
We then ensure that the banker has conveyed that story accurately in their credit application to the decision makers — credit.
This is where clients get the benefit of our experience as former bankers and our database of current bankers. As well as our lending advice on the best borrowing and security structures. It’s the reason why we charge the client for some business transactions where only we can add value. Sure, most of our transactions are free of charge but they’re vanilla (or tick and flick) transactions.
A rejection by a bank can be devastating for clients. Our advice is to seek out a finance broker that has dealings with several banks. A good one will only charge you if you have a difficult to bank transaction and once you’ve met with a potential lender and have decided to proceed. A bad broker will insist on their work fee being paid up-front before they touch your file.