A loan agent is a financial institution that works on behalf of the borrower and lenders as an administrator. A loan agent ensures that corporate loans are managed properly to avoid delays, costly errors and reputational risk. A neutral third-party loan agent is often retained to support complex, specialized or distressed loan transactions.

For more information on UMB’s highly experienced loan agency services, contact the Corporate Trust team.

A bilateral loan is a corporate loan that has one borrower and only one lender, while club loans and broadly syndicated loans are corporate loans that have multiple lenders. The difference between club loans and broadly syndicated loans is one of scale. Club loans have a handful of lenders at most, while broadly syndicated loans can potentially have hundreds of lenders.

Club loans and broadly syndicated loans require an experienced arranger to find the lenders for the borrower and a sophisticated loan agent to handle the complex nature of managing multiple lenders. UMB’s loan agency team has extensive experience administering bilateral, club, and broadly syndicated corporate loans. For more information on UMB’s loan agency services, contact the Corporate Trust team.

An escrow agent is a person or entity that holds property in trust for a third party while a transaction is finalized or a disagreement is resolved. Typically, a financial institution provides the escrow agent services and can hold assets, invest funds, handle tax reporting and manage distributions on behalf of the organization it represents.

An ideal escrow agent has a comprehensive team of advisors working on behalf of its client. This includes in-house attorneys and a specialized relationship managers experienced in a broad range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, capital raise or litigation settlements.

UMB is a nationally recognized and ranked provider of corporate trust and escrow services. For more information, please contact a UMB Corporate Trust representative.

A paying agent collects and distributes the principal and interest payments on the bonds. Unlike a trustee, a paying agent doesn’t have the ability to enforce the bond payment obligations. If there’s a paying agent but no bond trustee, there’s no independent party available to protect the rights of the bondholders if there is a default on the bonds.

To continue learning about the role of paying agents, read “Defining the role of a bond trustee or paying agent.”

Project finance provides the funds for long-term infrastructure, industrial projects and public services. It is a particular loan structure that mostly relies on the project’s generated cash flow for repayment and holds the projects assets, rights and interests as collateral.

For more information on UMB’s comprehensive project finance solutions, contact the UMB Corporate Trust team.