A commitment line is a contract between a bank and a corporate client which legally obliges the bank to extend loans upon request up to the amount and the term of validity which are agreed in advance. In this way, firms can obtain credit flexibly and at the same time streamline their balance sheets.
12  These concerns are reflected in the Interagency Guidance on Nontraditional Mortgage Product Risks (Office of the Controller of the Currency and others, 2006), as well as recently issued requests for public comment on the expansion of that guidance. For further discussion of the emergence of the subprime mortgage market, see Gramlich, 2007. 6  BIS Review 32/2007  Barr, Michael S. (2005).