Commercial Lending Foundations

Course Overview: Commercial lending is more than approving loans. It is about understanding businesses, identifying borrowing needs, and structuring credit in a way that supports both the client and the institution. In this course, you’ll follow the flow of a typical commercial loan from the first client conversation through analysis, decision, and closing.

Along the way, you’ll explore how different business structures and business types can affect borrowing needs, loan structure, and risk. You’ll see how common lending solutions are matched to specific business purposes and use the Five Cs of Credit—Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral, and Conditions—to evaluate the strength of a request. Through practical borrower scenarios, you’ll practice recognizing what matters most at each stage of the process.

By the end of the course, you’ll have a practical foundation in how commercial loans are evaluated, structured, and carried through to the next step. You’ll be better prepared to understand lending conversations, assess requests more clearly, and contribute with greater confidence.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify business structures and business classifications relevant to commercial lending.

• Determine the borrowing need presented in a commercial loan request.

• Select lending solutions that best fit common business borrowing needs.

• Apply the Five Cs of Credit and basic repayment principles to evaluate a request.

• Recognize the steps that move a commercial loan request from review to documentation and closing.

Audience: Employees involved in the commercial lending process

This course takes approximately 40 minutes to complete.

*This course does NOT qualify, nor meet the National Standard for NASBA accreditation.