Thread by @kaylatausche

NEW: Just spoke to two investment bank executives about the health of corporate balance sheets and whether clients are rushing to get capital. Thread below.

Energy, travel, airline suppliers and industrial clients are reaching out to see where they can get additional money -- this means tapping existing credit facilities, increasing them, and taking out new bridge loans (1-3yr terms).

For companies, like Boeing, wanting to access existing revolving loans, there is ample room.

One exec said at his bank, only 3-4% of committed loans have been drawn down.

At another bank, an executive estimated about 10%.

Both acknowledged this figure will rise.

But they also both acknowledged this is dramatically lower - and times noticeably calmer - than the liquidity crunch and flight to capital of the 2008 financial crisis.

How banks are calculating the amount of money needed by a given company:

- At what rate are you burning cash?
- How many months can your existing cash last?
- How long will virus last?
- At what point after that will your customers return?

“This is not the financial crisis,” one inv bank executive said. "There’s going to be an end to this, so this should be a more clear-cut analysis.”

And loans are safer now, too: "Liquidity requests are going to the board of directors. It’s a completely different mindset."

Says the second investment bank executive: "There’s no panic borrowing going on – people are being prudent about that."

"It doesn't feel at ALL like '08 in that sense, but there is softness out there."

BUT: Expect large swaths of bankruptcies and significant downgrades in the energy sector as oil plumbs these lows.

Government programs would help soften some blows, but it may only delay the inevitable for this sector.

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