Business banker pipeline notes

Hampton Bank | Business Banking
Working notes | Draft 1.4 | Last edited 9 November 2026 | Owner: Business Banking Operations Lead | Status: informal, not a controlled procedure

1. Purpose

These notes describe how business bankers track leads and opportunities through to a credit submission. They were written to brief new starters, not as policy, and they describe what most bankers do rather than a required method.

2. Who this applies to

The 80 business bankers (45 in Victoria, 35 in New South Wales), their team managers and the credit support officers who receive submissions.

3. Steps

1. Capture the lead. Leads arrive from branch referrals (usually by email), existing clients, introducers and the banker's own networking. The banker adds a row to their personal pipeline spreadsheet.
2. Qualify. Make a first call or visit. Record the client's business, the funding need and an estimated amount in the spreadsheet. Notes go in a free-text column.
3. Check the existing relationship. Look the client up in Hamlink to see if they already hold products. Hamlink does not show open opportunities, so this tells the banker about accounts only.
4. Develop the opportunity. Update the stage (lead, discussion, proposal, submitted, approved, declined), the next action date and the estimated exposure each time something changes. Most bankers use cell colours as a reminder.
5. Prepare the credit submission. Collect financials and security details, complete the credit template in Word and email it to the credit support mailbox with the supporting documents.
6. Track the decision. Credit support replies by email. The banker updates the spreadsheet.
7. Report. Every Thursday each banker emails the spreadsheet, or a pasted extract, to their team manager. Team managers combine the extracts for the Head of business banking before the Friday pipeline review.

4. Systems used

• Personal spreadsheets, one per banker, each with its own columns.
• Hamlink, for customer and account lookup only.
• Email, for referrals, credit submissions and weekly reporting.
• Word, for the credit template.

5. Known pain points

• No shared view of the pipeline. The Head of business banking sees it once a week, assembled by hand.
• Referrals from branches arrive by email and are sometimes missed or not acknowledged.
• If a banker is away or leaves, the pipeline is in their spreadsheet and the team has to ask for it.
• Client notes are personal and uneven in quality.
• The same client can appear in two bankers' spreadsheets with different stages.
• Credit submissions are tracked by email, so status questions go back and forth.

6. Ownership

There is no controlled owner of the pipeline method. The Business Banking Operations Lead keeps these notes.