Discipline II
We lend our
own money.
It shows.
Reserve lines written against what you already own — portfolios, partnerships, property, bullion. Every loan stays on our balance sheet from the first draw to the last payment. Never syndicated. Never sold on. If you owe us money, you owe it to us.
Collateral
What we
What we
lend against.
Four kinds of collateral, all of which we understand from the inside. We hold what secures the loan, we value it ourselves, and we do not lend against anything we would not be content to own.
I.
Marketable portfolios
Advance rates set conservatively and reviewed each trading day.
A line that survives a bad quarter is worth more than a larger one that does not.
II.
Partnership & fund interests
We read the documents ourselves — the agreement, the side letters,
the transfer provisions. Then we lend against what they actually say.
III.
Real property
First liens only, supported by unhurried appraisals. We would rather
take three extra weeks than misprice a building for thirty years.
IV.
Bullion & specie
The original collateral — assayed in-house since 1807. Weighed,
verified, vaulted, and lent against the same day.
The sequence
How a line
How a line
gets made.
No application portal. No scoring model. A line of credit here is a decision made by people who know your balance sheet, in an order that has not changed much since the ledgers were bound in leather.
A conversation
You call the banker who knows your balance sheet. You describe the need — a capital call, an acquisition, a bridge. The banker asks the questions the documents will later answer.
Structure
Term, rate, covenants — set out in plain English first, before a single defined term appears. You agree to the shape of the thing, then we paper it.
Documentation
Papers written to be read. Short where the law allows, precise where it does not, and free of anything we would be embarrassed to explain across a desk.
The draw
You call, we wire. Funds arrive the same day, by Fedwire, with the reference you asked for. The line sits quietly until the next time.
6 daysTypical first draw
0Participations sold
1 signatureApproves your line
219 yearsOf saying no politely