Charles Thor: Crafting a Career in Commercial Banking

In this episode of The Credit Bubble, I sit down with Charles Thor to explore his path from commercial banking at Union Bank to global roles with MUFG and HSBC, and ultimately into credit leadership at Silicon Valley Bank. We discuss how early underwriting experience shapes long-term judgment, what changes when you move from the deal team into the credit seat, and how global banking experience influences risk evaluation. We also get into how credit decisions actually get made in practice—and close with Charles’s “User Guide,” a framework for aligning teams around communication, consistency, and decision-making.