Fund Finance 101 – Back To Basics – Financial Services

Following on Mike Mascia’s Closing Remarks delivered to young Fund
Finance professionals at last month’s FFA University 1.0, I
wanted to take things back to the basics for those who are just
starting their careers in fund finance.

“Do they lend above the fund or below the
fund?”

These are the first words that come to mind when I think about
the start of my career in fund finance. Like many young
professionals before me, I walked into my first interview armed
with as much knowledge as I considered feasible to cram into my
brain about an area of finance which, up until the moment I was
asked that foreign question, I had little understanding.

Multiple articles, flowcharts and PowerPoint presentations
later, I began to make advances at installing this new language
into Fund Finance Fiona 1.0. As I continued to embark on the next
steps in my career, the amount of legal and business jargon I
needed to learn grew – but my confidence also grew.

As we welcome this year’s fresh batch of first-year
associates, it seems as appropriate a time as any to take things
back to basics – because there is nothing like teaching that
is as effective to reinforce your own learning. So if this is one
of many articles, flowcharts and PowerPoints you have reviewed, or
that remain on your horizon, know that in time, the foreign will
become the familiar.

So what is fund finance? What is a fund? What is happening
above and below it? What are some key considerations for…