Loan committee

Definition

The bank group that approves or declines a loan, and never meets you.

Why It Matters

Approval is a meeting you are not in, decided on paper written by somebody else, which changes what you should optimize for: the file exists to survive a room that has never spoken to you or the seller. It also explains the timeline. A lender who says yes on a call has said the deal fits the box. The committee date is when the answer becomes real. A closing schedule built on the officer's enthusiasm instead of the committee calendar is the commonest reason a financing contingency runs out.

In numbers: A committee sitting every other week turns a verbal yes on the 3rd into a decision on the 17th. A financing contingency of 45 days holds only three or four of those meetings, and a file that misses one has lost two weeks of it.