Hill responds, “That’s a great question, because part of our process is to recruit the kind of lead lender that can step in and agent the credit. Right now, we’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting to make it easier for them. At the same time, there is a tier of institutions in the $5 billion and above range that don’t fall into the ‘too big to fail’ category. These institutions have sophisticated servicing capabilities, sophisticated underwriting departments and are already looking at shared national credits with some of the larger lenders. So they are already being exposed to the underwriting of some of the more complicated credits. For them the value proposition not only lies in the opportunity to step up and lead a transaction of this nature, but to also take on the servicing of that transaction down the road.”

Hill also contends it’s not as great a challenge as one might be inclined to think when it comes to orienting these institutions toward leading and agenting syndicated deals. He says, “One of the things we’ve observed over the last period is that there has been so much dislocation in the money center banks in the last five to seven years, many highly qualified and talented professionals have ‘moved home’ and have taken jobs in some of these mid-tier and smaller community institutions.”

But in the end, it’s really all about changing habits driven by a deeply rooted mindset. He concludes, “Recently I spent a week in New York where I met with quite a few of the big firms … and literally, all I was asking for was a seat at the table. It goes something like, ‘When you’re thinking about calling Bank of America or Wells Fargo or your buddies at Credit Suisse or Deutsche, call me too.’ That’s all I’m asking for because we have lenders who are hungry to lend and we can clear the market and move quickly.”