Blueprint for Success

Beware The New Player

Special Loans Managers have a very specific function within the Bank. They typically are assigned to the dirtiest, rottenest deals the bank has made and are asked to minimize the Bank’s potential for loss. This is how they are judged. No-one sends out surveys on them to see if they handled client’s affairs to the client’s liking. They are not in a popularity contest. Because of the broken down situations they frequently find themselves in, they are tough, arrogant and thick-skinned.

The Special Account Manager will arrive at the client’s office with a pre-designed agenda. It is difficult to get him to move off that agenda and you need to be prepared. He has read the file and made certain assumptions about the company that may or may not be true. He is restricted in his ability to understand the situation by both the ability of the account manager to understand and document it properly and his own limited frame of understanding and reference. Since he has come from within the bank, he may or may not have had previous experience dealing with companies in your industry. This is ptotentially dangerous.

Banks do not signal that they are considering an account for Special Loans nomination. It is a dubious distinction at best and can often signal the death knell of a business if you are not prepared properly to deal with it.