2.17 The day-to-day management of a PFI contract will typically take place between an authority and either the SPV or the management service company (MSC) (see Figure 4 on page 17). If there are problems with the contract, involving a wider range of stakeholders may help to accelerate the resolution of these issues. For example, lenders such as banks, can play a role in how incentivised SPVs are to maintain assets appropriately. Lenders will typically put in place restrictions over how the PFI contract is managed to ensure that the authority continues to pay the unitary charge, and any debt and interest owed to the banks are repaid before payments are made to shareholders. In the early years of the contract, these restrictions help to ensure lifecycle maintenance is carried out and reported on. As debt levels reduce over time these restrictions either fall away or are easier to meet and lenders become less incentivised to hold the SPV to account. The senior debt repayment profile is typically shorter than the length of the PFI contract, meaning lenders are repaid around one to two years before expiry, making it more important to raise contractual problems with the SPV while the lenders are still involved.