We recently had to claim on a bank guarantee regarding a commercial lease. The guarantee said that the bank would issue a cheque within two business days of making a claim. When I presented the guarantee to the ‘business manager’ at the bank, he candidly told me that it would take about two weeks to process. I referred him to the wording of his own bank guarantee. He shrugged his shoulders, and told me that it would make no difference. In his experience the bank would take two weeks to pay. He was right. The money came exactly two weeks later. The guarantee to pay within two days was clearly not worth the paper it was written on. We will advise our clients to avoid accepting guarantees from this particular bank again.