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Blog · Wallet share and penetration · Commercial banking

Ten questions a head of commercial banking asks, and the table that answers each

The ten questions a head of commercial banking puts to the relationship managers, which borrowers hold nothing but the loan, whose balances are leaving before the customer does, which facilities are drawn to the limit and which are paid for and unused, which customers hold fewer products than their sector peers, which lines refer and which only receive, which relationship managers can carry their gap list, which customers moved segment, who has not been contacted at cadence, which products are opened and never used, and what changed, each with the table from the loan book, the balances and the CRM, and the answer to send back.

The short answerA head of commercial banking's questions are about relationships, and each has a table from the loan book, the deposit and product ledgers and the CRM: lending-only relationships valued at the deposits and fees similar customers hold; deposit flight by relationship with the moved-elsewhere split; facility utilisation with fees on undrawn capacity; products used against the sector norm; referral flow between lines with the imbalance; relationship manager capacity against the gap list; segment migrations with both norms; contact recency against cadence; products opened and unused; and the movements page. Every customer is in one segment and has one owner, and the answer to send back is a relationship manager's account of their portfolio.

A head of commercial banking asks the relationship managers about their portfolios and hears about their portfolios. The loan book, the balances and the CRM hold the portfolios as tables. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.

The ten

# The question The table Identity Send back
1 Whose balances are leaving? Deposit flight against baseline and prior year; moved-elsewhere split Balances reconcile to transactions Closure count
2 Who holds nothing but the loan? Lending-only relationships valued at norm; syndications flagged Loan book ⊆ master Product counts
3 Which facilities are at the limit, and which unused? Utilisation per facility, trended; fees on undrawn; revenue trend beside Drawn ≤ limit Average utilisation
4 Who holds fewer products than their peers? Products used vs sector and size norm; gap and missing lines Products used sum to ledger Products held
5 Which lines refer, and which only receive? Referral flow, conversion, imbalance, unlogged flow Referral revenue ⊆ receiving ledger Referral counts
6 Can the relationship managers carry their gap lists? Capacity against the gap list in hours Assigned customers sum A gap list with no calendar
7 Who moved segment? Migration list with old and new norms Every customer in one segment Gap list without the migrations
8 Who has not been contacted at cadence? Contact recency per relationship manager Assigned customers sum Activity counts
9 Which products are opened and unused? Held vs used; activation list; went-quiet list Held = used + unused Holdings as the relationship
10 What changed? The movements page Every line cites Narrative

A worked exchange

Head of commercial banking: Whose balances are leaving? Response: Customer 4471: operating balances down two thirds over three months, outbound transfers to another institution up four times, account open. RM-04. Table 1, row 1. Head of commercial banking: What else do they hold? Response: A facility at 9 percent drawn, paying $29,000 a year in commitment fees on capacity they do not use, and two products against a norm of six. Tables 3 and 4. Head of commercial banking: Has anyone called? Response: 71 days since contact; cadence 45. Table 8.

Three tables, one customer, one relationship manager, one call.

Where it goes wrong

Portfolios described by their managers. Confident, from memory.

Loan book and deposits never joined. The lending-only list does not exist.

Utilisation averaged. The customer paying for nothing and the one about to run out look normal.

Referrals counted, not converted. The line that only receives, unseen.

Every quarter, ten tables

Covirage produces the ten tables from the loan book, the balance and product ledgers and the CRM export, with the identities checked. The commercial banking page describes the setup, and the deposit flight guide covers the first table.

Questions people ask

Which question first?

Deposit flight, because it is the signal with the shortest fuse: balances leave a year before the account closes, and the transaction data says whether the money went to another bank. The relationship manager who calls in that year has a conversation; after it, a closure notice.

Do these need customer names?

No. Customer identifiers, balances, products, facilities, transactions by counterparty type, and the CRM's activities on the same identifiers. The relationship manager has the names; the tables do not.

What is the identity?

Loan book customers are in the master; balances reconcile to receipts and payments; drawn never exceeds limit without a recorded excess; referral revenue sits inside the receiving line's ledger. A table that does not reconcile to the balance sheet's own figures is sent back.