The Ranger spoke to a regular contact in depth about his outlook on one particular region's loan margins. After the phone interview, the contact emailed to ask what his competitors had to say on the subject.
The Ranger is a fellow of great discretion in such matters, but obliged by sending back an anonymous summary of some of the other views in the market.
Some of these alternative takes surprised the banker, to one of which he pronounced: “The other person clearly has no idea, really!”
In a separate instance, a loans banker who focuses on Africa suggested that an oil firm would return to the market for its third loan of the year.
But an official at another bank — who happened to be working on the oil company’s latest loan — said there was "fat chance" the firm would issue again this year. Referring to the comments of the other banker, he had a few choice words:
“They are just saying that to scare us.”
And there have been plenty of instances of late of that all-time classic approach for bankers - the old-fashioned slamming of a competitor’s deal:
“Their pricing is too aggressive, it won’t get done,” bankers regularly sing. You could almost put it to music.
It must be said, however, that loan bankers are a friendly bunch and are not always tearing apart their opponents. But no one - least not the Loan Ranger - can resist a little gossip.
