What is Syndicated loan?

A loan granted jointly to one borrower by several banks (a syndicate). It is used for amounts that are too large for one bank or that one bank does not want to take on alone. The syndicate is usually put together by a lead bank (the arranger): it negotiates the terms, prepares the documents and may later manage the distribution of payments among the banks. Each bank finances its own share of the loan and bears the risk on that share, so a single bank's exposure to the borrower is reduced. The loan may take the form of a fixed amount, a credit line or a mix of both. A loan provided by a small group of a few banks, without wide syndication being planned, is called a "club deal".

Source: Cbonds glossary: syndicated loan; Cbonds glossary: syndicated loan tranche; Vernimmen glossary: club deal