Refinitiv LPC’s Quarterly Lender Survey: When do you expect to meet more than a handful of clients face to face?

While the adjustment to working remotely has alllowed for new efficiencies, with lenders commenting that processes such as amendments for more straightforward asks could go through faster than pre-Covid, the challenge of sourcing new business persists.
 
According to Refinitiv LPC’s Quarterly Lender Survey, one third say they may meet more than a handful of clients face to face this winter but forty percent say not until next year. The upside to remote working has been that clients are more likely to pick up the phone and more willing to set up Zoom meetings which tend to start and end on time, and are direct and to the point.

Although Zoom meetings are more efficient, the downside, lenders and asset managers noted, is that it is much harder to read the room, know how a pitch landed. There is less room for spontaneous conversation that can lead to brainstorming and new business ideas.