Blog
Banking, finance, and modelling articles. New posts weekly.
- The UK Banking Market Review, Week 37 2026
Free weekly review. High-LTV lending at a 2008 high, Aldermore's accounts taken apart as bids arrive, the repricing split and bank tax proposals, with last week's calls graded.
Published 2026-09-13 - How to Calculate Mid-Year Discounting in a DCF Model
End-of-year discounting under-discounts cash flows by half a year of WACC. Mid-year discounting fixes this. Here's the formula, the Excel implementation, and the common mistakes.
Published 2026-04-21 - Deposit Beta in Bank ALM Models: 2022-2025 Calibration
Most US bank ALM models use deposit beta from the 2014-2019 cycle. Actual betas in 2022-2025 ran 2-3x higher. The recalibration framework, by tier, with EVE/NII shock implications.
Published 2026-04-21 - INDIRECT() in Excel: Why You Should Stop Using It
INDIRECT() is the most overused finance modelling function. Three specific problems and four alternatives by use case.
Published 2026-04-21 - The CCAR Stress Capital Buffer Trap for the 2026 Cycle
Revised SCB rules for the 2026 CCAR cycle make planned dividends a binding input to capital adequacy. Most regional bank models still treat dividends as a pure use of capital. Here's what changes and what to fix.
Published 2026-04-22 - Why Most CECL Models Drift After Year 2 (And How to Fix It)
CECL adoption was 2020. Five years on, methodologies have drifted. Examiners are flagging four specific patterns: stale R&S forecast horizons, undefended reversion paths, ungrounded Q-factors, and outdated pool segmentation. How to fix each.
Published 2026-04-22 - Building Financial Models Programmatically with Python and openpyxl
Hand-edited Excel models are unmaintainable at scale. Python + openpyxl makes the build script the source of truth. Here's our standard pattern: helpers, named ranges, the no-circularity rule, and how we validate all 18 models in one command.
Published 2026-04-22 - LBO Model Debt Sizing: How to Structure the Debt Stack
Debt sizing in an LBO model is not a single calculation - it's an iterative constraint problem with credit ratios, leverage multiples, and coverage tests all biting at once. Here's how PE professionals actually structure the debt stack.
Published 2026-05-07 - WACC for Banks: Why the Standard Formula Breaks Down
The textbook WACC formula assumes debt is a funding choice. For banks, debt (deposits) is the product. This one difference invalidates WACC for bank valuation - and most analysts apply it anyway.
Published 2026-05-07 - Excel Financial Model Best Practices: The 12 Rules That Actually Matter
Most best-practice lists are generic. These 12 rules come from building 18 institutional-grade models and watching finance teams use them under pressure. They're ranked by how often violating them causes real problems.
Published 2026-05-07 - IFRS 9 Staging: When 12-Month ECL Becomes Lifetime ECL
Stage 2 is where the provision actually moves. A loan transferring from stage 1 to stage 2 can multiply its ECL by ten overnight, and the trigger is a judgement, not a number handed to you.
Published 2026-09-07 - How to Build an IFRS 9 ECL Model in Excel
An ECL model is not hard arithmetic. It is hard bookkeeping. Most of them fail review not because the loss numbers are wrong, but because nobody can trace how a provision moved between two dates.
Published 2026-09-07 - Reverse Stress Testing: Finding the Scenario That Breaks the Bank
Ordinary stress testing asks what happens if things get bad. Reverse stress testing asks what would have to happen for the bank to stop being viable. The second question is harder and more useful.
Published 2026-09-07 - ICAAP: A Practical Guide for Finance Teams
Most ICAAP submissions fail at the model layer, not the narrative layer. The regulator already knows your capital ratios. What they want to see is whether your capital model is robust enough to trust under stress. This guide covers the mechanics.
Published 2026-05-11 - ILAAP: The Practical Guide to Internal Liquidity Adequacy Assessment
A bank can be adequately capitalised and still fail within days if it can't fund its liabilities. ILAAP is the regulatory framework that tests whether a bank can survive a liquidity stress. Here's what it requires and how to build the model that supports it.
Published 2026-05-11 - Private Equity Fund Waterfalls: American vs European Structure
The distribution waterfall is the mechanism that determines how a PE fund splits returns between LPs and the GP. Getting it wrong means either LPs get less than they should, or the GP takes carry they haven't earned. Here's the full mechanics.
Published 2026-05-11