Stuff you should know
|
In a desperate attempt to stop salespeople going, “hey legal eagles, can you read this email for me”, and to counterpoint lackadaisical credit officers saying, “the question of whether we have credit risk to that bank account is a legal question on which I can’t opine”[1] we are running a snagging list of legal concepts about which no bank employee should plead ignorance. It is your job to know this stuff.
Stuff you should know, banker’s edition, then:
- How agency works and why you can’t be agent for yourself;
- The nature of cash and indebtedness;
- The difference between shares and bonds, where they fit in the capital structure and, indeed, what a capital structure is;
- What trusts are and why we use them;
- How bank accounts work, and why banks don’t keep your money in a little jar with your name on it (in part because, per the nature of cash, they can’t);
- The nature of the deal: offer, acceptance and consideration;
- Amendment and waiver;
- How set-off works, and more particularly, when it doesn’t;
- How security works and why it is different from trust;
- The difference between title transfer and pledge;
See also
Derivatives as explained to my neighbour Phil
References
- ↑ Real-life quote, by the way, from a managing director in a global investment bank, to which the retort should have been, but I regret to say was not, “pal, if you are really saying you don’t know that, you need to get your coat”.