A determined effort by developing countries, as external borrowers, could significantly improve their negotiating capacity. The most obvious need is for systematically collected information about loan negotiations and differences among transnational banks. In the bargaining environment, it is useful for developing country borrowers to be aware of such distinctions so that they can organize their relations with transnational banks in a way that is supportive of national development objectives. However, there is little institutional analysis available on the behaviour of individual lenders, which makes it difficult for new borrowers to set up strategies for negotiations with individual institutions. This is especially true with regard to banks that are relatively new in the international capital market, banks which are of particular interest for developing country borrowers. Under present circumstances, borrowers can only begin to differentiate among the behaviour of banks after a long accumulation of experience. However, the learning-by-doing method can be difficult and unnecessarily costly. To overcome this, systematic analysis of the institutional behaviour of transnational bank lenders is required.