For trainees and junior lawyers · English law

Finance Deals & Syndicated Lending

A syndicate of banks lends a payments group the money to buy a company. You are a trainee solicitor in a banking team.

How companies borrow from a group of banks, taught through one loan agreement, clause by clause.

A bank's ground-floor lobby, drawn straight on from inside, two minutes before eleven. A glass revolving door stands in the front wall: a round canopy, a central post and four glass wings caught mid-turn; the street, a shopfront across the road, shows only through the compartment open to it. The wing coming round towards the viewer, seen almost edge-on, is outlined in copper. A clock hanging from the ceiling reads two minutes to eleven. Beside the door an umbrella stand holds three furled umbrellas of three heights, the tallest, with a crook handle, nearest the door. An empty three-seat bench runs in from the left, the end of an unattended reception counter from the right. No one is in the lobby.

You will be able to:

  • Read a loan agreement and say what each clause does
  • Explain what the borrower and the lenders each want, and why
  • Follow a loan from the first terms to the day money moves

14 chapters with tests · a final exam · a certificate · about 5 hours in all · published 21 August 2026

Start Chapter 1

Chapters

Module 1

The Lay of the Land

Module 2

The Deal

Module 3

The Protections

Module 4

The Machinery

Module 5

Getting It Done

One case runs through every chapter: three banks lend a payments group the money to buy another company. Read the full facilities agreement →

Glossary: every term in plain English · Final exam: 30 questions, open book