Your flag must be nailed to the mast, for obviously you'd run it down if it wasn't.
The California courts have a reputation for playing quite slow—in 2006, Martina Navratilova griped, “you hit a great volley, and the person’s got five minutes to run it down and hit it by you.”
In these circumstances, the natural (and sensible) inclination of Banks is to hold on to capital, not to run it down further by ramping up lending.