A facility renewal often starts with the next year’s pipeline. It should also start with the obligations left over from this year. A completed project can continue to occupy capacity if its bond requires a release that nobody has obtained.
The live-bond schedule should identify the principal, beneficiary, amount, wording and expiry or release condition for each instrument. Practical completion, expiry of the defects period and return of an original document are distinct events. The contract and the guarantee determine which one matters.
A broker can then separate instruments that genuinely remain exposed from those for which evidence of discharge is available. Capacity should only be treated as released once the insurer has accepted the relevant evidence under the instrument’s terms. An internal note that a job is finished is not the same thing.
This is a useful year-end exercise because it improves the starting point for the next tender programme. It also prevents the applicant from treating all historic guarantees as either permanently outstanding or automatically cancelled. The schedule makes the remaining obligation explicit.
Where this goes next
