Deals not closing - common causes?

Apologies in advance for errors as I’m typing on phone.

Hi all,

Hoping the more tenured folks can chime in. Background is I’ve been told to focus more on origination over execution given increasing seniority (promoted last cycle to D). Over the past 1.5 years, I’ve had three deals where I was main originator come by and for one reason or another, did not cross the finish line.

Without getting too deeply into details, I’ll share some high level info. Every deal is different and this might not be enough to pin point what went wrong, but hoping folks can share some general thoughts from their own experience on why some deals fail where others succeed.

1. Cross-border deal supporting domestic sponsor in EMEA: we had strong relationship with client, they approached us first over other banks, we threw in balance sheet as well for good measure to try to secure mandate. Talks were going well and we sent in TS for financing. Then all went silent. They ended up going with another bank with no reason given.

2. We were concurrently working on deal involving a foreign sub while engagement letter was being ironed out. We were told that group mgmt for the sub preferred another relationship bank.

3. We were maybe 1 month away from deal announcement. Abruptly, governance committee at client (sell-side) shut down the process. Apparently they “changed their mind and are no longer selling”.