Early indicators show commercial lending banks are coming back

Commercial lending in 2020 has felt a lot like this pic taken of a boarded up national bank on a recent trip to Denver, stating “We’re Open for Business”.  What a nice slogan, if only it were true.

In our experience only about 30% of lenders kept truly lending in a reasonable fashion in 2020.. and Triple Net Lending sent a lot of great financing business to the 30% that stayed in the game!

The tide is changing though in November, with major vaccine developments and many other reasons to be bullish, such as recent retail sales showing both momentum and pent up demand, bankers are now getting back in the game.  Multiple bankers have called us in the last week asking if opportunities we showed them 60 days ago are still available.  This is great news and while lenders will still be very selective on asset classes in the short term; this is a great indication we are heading in a positive direction. 

As Tim, a lending executive, I reported to a few decades ago, always told me, “don’t ever take your foot off the gas, nothing makes a lending portfolio look worse than declining volume”.  In my humble opinion, lenders are quickly recognizing they need to place their foot firmly back on the gas.