The Interdependence between Trade Credit and Bank Lending: Commitment in Intermediary Firm Relationships

This study investigates the interdependence between trade and bank credit among 468 Portuguese small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The results show that a single bank relationship is prevalent among Portuguese SMEs, indicating that the proprietary borrower information that banks obtain through their relationship results in an information monopoly that creates a holdup problem and leads to high interest rates. Suppliers that can control their customers' credit risk may provide additional credit and thus help alleviate concerns associated with holdup costs. Trade credit is a viable alternative to short‐term debt, especially when firms' main bank is unwilling to increase its exposure to liquidity constraints.     

Relationship lending and SME financing in the continental European bank-based system

This paper analyzes the relationship between banks and SMEs in the continental European bank-based system. We find that SMEs with longer bank relationships have enhanced access to loans, but at the same time they bear a higher cost for their debt. We also find that firms maintaining two bank relationships get the cheapest debt, which establishes a limit for the degree of concentration of bank relationships. Our results also show that the existence of trust between firm and bank improves access to financing and reduces the borrowing costs, whereas it increases the likelihood that guarantees will have to be provided. As a consequence, it seems that a relationship based on trust is a better strategy to improve SMEs’ access to finance than the establishment of longer or more concentrated relationships.     

The institutional environment and the number of bank relationships: an empirical analysis of European SMEs

This article examines the association between creditor protection, as measured by the nature of legal rules and the quality of law enforcement, and multiple bank relationships using a unique survey sample of SMEs from 19 European countries. We find that the likelihood of multiple banking is the highest for SMEs in French-civil-law countries, next highest for German-civil-law countries, and the lowest in Scandinavian-civil-law and English-common-law countries. We also find that SMEs in countries with low legal efficiency are more likely to establish multiple bank relationships. These results seems to confirm the underlying idea in the law and finance literature that relevant loan risk for banks also arises from low quality of laws and institutions and not just from firm-specific characteristics. Banks in countries where protection of creditor rights is poor may resort to multiple banking to share this additional risk. Policy makers can use our findings to justify the necessity of improving their institutions by reducing legal formalisms and thereby, lowering the enforcement costs in the courts. This would lead to better loan contracting and enhance the flow of debt capital, which is required for a healthy and dynamic economy.     

Effect of the Number of Banking Relationships on Credit Availability: Evidence from Panel Data of Spanish Small Firms

This paper investigates how the choice between single or multiple banking relationships affects credit availability for a complete panel of small and medium-sized Spanish firms. The results seem to indicate the existence of rationing, since a substitution relation has been found between trade and bank credit. We also analyse the relationship between the level of indebtedness and the interest rate for each group of firms. The results show that those SMEs that work with fewer financial intermediaries obtain fewer funds for the same increase in the interest rate, which indicates that these companies have more financial restraints.     

Determinants of Interest Rates on Time Deposits and Savings Accounts: Macro Factors,Bank Risk,and Account Features

Using a novel dataset from the Netherlands' banking sector, we examine how macroeconomic, bank‐specific, and account‐specific characteristics affect the interest rates of banking products. Our results show that interest rates have become more sensitive to bank risk since the onset of the global financial crisis. More generally, we show that time deposits reflect more closely the economic environment than bank interest rates on savings accounts do. Interest rates on deposit products vary not only across, but also within banks (i.e., across account of individual banks). We find that maturity‐increasing conditions (i.e., withdrawal fees for savings accounts and product maturity for time deposits) positively influence a product's interest rate.     

Who Benefits from Longer Lending Relationships? An Analysis on European SMEs

This paper empirically investigates the impact of lending relationships duration on SMEs financial stability. Our research hypothesis is that the balance between benefits and costs of longer bank‐firm ties may be different depending on the degree of firms' financial health. Using a large sample of European manufacturing SMEs that excludes firms that have defaulted and those with less than ten employees, we find that the overall positive effect of enduring lending relationships tends to progressively increase for more stable firms, being greater when the main bank operates nearby the firm. Our findings, yet, are conditional on firm survival and may not be generalized to the smallest of firms.     

中小企业融资中的自有资金信贷机制

银行贷款收益取决于贷款利率和贷款风险两个因素。在贷款利率受到管制时,理性的银行为了实现期望利润最大化,要求企业提供足够抵押来规避贷款风险。我国中小企业由于自身特征及所处信贷环境的原因,银行向其贷款风险大,且得不到足够抵押品,也没有第三方提供担保,这就导致中小企业贷款难现象。因此,我国商业银行应该灵活运用抵押、担保、关系贷款和自有资金多种手段,积极构建中小企业的多层次信贷机制体系。     

中小企业融资与银行关系研究综述

银行贷款是中小企业间接融资的最主要渠道,银企之间良好关系的建立,可以有效缓解中小企业的融资困境。本文从影响银企关系的因素、银行结构对中小企业融资的影响、如何建立银行与中小企业的关系几方面对已有的一些国内外文献进行了综述,并指出今后应加大对开放条件下银企关系的研究。     

‘Relationship Banking and SMEs: A Theoretical Analysis’

Reliable information on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is rare and costly for financial intermediaries. Therefore relationship banking is often considered as the appropriate lending technique. In this paper we offer a theoretical model to analyze relationship banking and the pricing behavior of banks in a Bertrand competition framework with monitoring costs. We show that the lack of reliable information leads to comparable high interest rates even if a long-term relationship between borrower and bank exists. The paper offers a theoretical explanation why SMEs often are faced with borrowing constraints. We are grateful to Franziska Holz, Caroline Kip, Claudia Nassif, Dorothea Schaefer, Philipp Schroeder, the DIW financial market group and an anonymous referee for valuable comments on an earlier version of the paper.     

Bank profitability and interest rate risk

It is frequently asserted that the profitability of institutions that lend long and borrow short is restricted during periods of rising interest rates. In banking circles this assertion has been translated into a concern primarily for the soundness of smaller banks, which are commonly thought to hold a large proportion of their portfolios in longer term fixed-rate loans and thus face considerable interest rate risk. Moreover, with the popularity of the new “NOW” accounts and competing money market mutual funds, there is a fear that a potential profit squeeze at these institutions has been made more probable. The present study examines the issue of the interest rate sensitivity of commercial bank profitability at a theoretical level and attempts to measure empirically the extent to which the profitability of different size classes of banks has been affected by periods of changing interest rates since 1976. This study finds that small commercial banks as a group have actually experienced increased profitability both absolutely and relative to large banks in recent periods (since 1976) of rising interest rates. However, this variation is numerically small. This finding calls into question both the usefulness of the maturity composition model as a predictor of interest rate risk and the concern for the supposed plight of small banks during periods of rising interest rates.     

External Financing,Export Intensity and Inter‐Organizational Collaborations: Evidence from Canadian SMEs*

Drawing on institutional theory, resource‐based perspective and internationalization theory, we propose that the domestic collaborations of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have a direct positive effect on their export intensity, as well as an indirect effect through enhancing these firms' access to external financing. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 151 Canadian manufacturing SMEs and find partial support for the indirect relationship. Overall, our results suggest that domestic collaborations positively affect SMEs' access to equity financing but not to bank financing. While both equity and bank financing are found to enhance these firms' export intensity, bank financing seems to have a greater impact. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Islamic financing and bank risks: The case of Malaysia

We examine whether Islamic financing can explain three important bank risks in a country with a dual banking system: credit risk, interest‐rate risk, and liquidity risk. Using Malaysian data, we find that commercial banks with Islamic financing have significantly lower credit and liquidity risks but significantly higher interest‐rate risk than banks without Islamic financing. There is also evidence that bank size is significantly related to credit risk; the proportion of loan sales to total liabilities and bank size are significant determinants of interest‐rate risk; and off‐balance‐sheet financing, the extent of securitization, loan volatility, bank capital, and bank size are statistically significantly related to liquidity risk. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Credit Risk Assessment and Relationship Lending: An Empirical Analysis of German Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises*

We estimate a logit scoring model for the prediction of the probability of default by German small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) using a unique data set on SME loans in Germany. Our scoring model helps SMEs to gain knowledge about their default risk, which can be used to approximate their risk adequate cost of debt. This knowledge is likely to lead to a detection of hold‐up problems that German SMEs might be confronted with in their bank relationships. Furthermore, it allows them to monitor their bank’s pricing behavior and it reduces information asymmetries between lenders and borrowers. Finally, it can influence their future financing decisions toward capital market‐based financing.     

Foreign banking in developing countries; origin matters

Driven by globalization and increased financial integration, the last decade has seen many foreign banks entering developing countries. Although the majority of these banks are from high-income countries, recently banks from developing countries have followed suit. This paper looks at this phenomenon, by examining the differences and similarities between developing and high-income country foreign banks. Using a large dataset on banking sector FDI in developing countries, we find that 27% of all foreign banks in developing countries are owned by a bank from another developing country, while these banks hold 5%of the foreign assets. The importance of developing country foreign banks is much larger in low-income countries (both in number of banks and in terms of assets) and this type of foreign banking is strongly regionally concentrated. Although foreign bank entry by both developing country as well as high-income country banks seems to be driven by economic integration, common language and proximity, banks from developing countries are more likely to invest in small developing countries with weak institutions where high-income country banks are reluctant to go. This result seems to suggest that developing country banks have a competitive advantage dealing with countries with a weak institutional climate. Furthermore, our results indicate that developing country foreign banks have a higher interest margin and are less profitable than foreign banks from high-income countries.     

Perceived credit constraints in the European Union

The promotion and support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is an essential component of policies designed to help improve Europe’s economic performance. A crucial issue is whether SMEs face difficulty obtaining bank loans. Using pre-crisis survey data from 2005 and 2006 for nearly 3,500 SMEs (firms with fewer than 250 employees) in the European Union (EU), we investigate the determinants of perceived bank loan accessibility at the firm level and at the country level. Based on hierarchical (multi-level) binomial logit regressions, our findings show that the youngest and smallest SMEs have the worst perception of access to bank loans. The SMEs in nations with concentrated banking sectors are more positive about loan accessibility. In addition, a high fraction of foreign-owned banks is associated with improved perception of loan accessibility in the EU 15 but not in the EU 10.     

银行垄断及其市场势力研究

文章从产业组织理论的角度,把银行业的多产品性、产品的服务性等特征引入所建立的理论模型,得出了垄断银行的相应定价行为以及银行市场势力相应的表现形式.总体而言,银行市场势力仍然具有正负两面的双重效应.对中国银行业市场势力的特殊表现形式的分析表明:中国银行业的低效率的关键的因素可能不是市场结构的集中,而主要是国有银行的行政性市场势力所至.     

Multistrategic Spatial Competition in Banking

This paper presents a model whereby banking firms use various strategies (price and non‐price) simultaneously in a monopolistically competitive model of spatial competition when the various strategies are used across different markets in the presence of a multioutput technology. The theoretical model is estimated with Spanish data pertaining to the pre‐ and post‐deregulatory periods in order to investigate the effects of deregulation of both interest rates and branches on the (differential) strategic conduct of private and savings bank.     

Monetary policy and long‐term interest rates: Evidence from the U.S. economy

This paper addresses the ability of central banks to affect the structure of interest rates. We assess the causal relationship between the short‐term Effective Federal Funds Rate (FF) and long‐term interest rates associated with both public and private bonds and specifically, the 10‐Year Treasury Bond (GB10Y) and the Moody's Aaa Corporate Bond (AAA). To do this, we apply Structural Vector Autoregressive models to U.S. monthly data for the 1954–2018 period. Based on results derived from impulse response functions and forecast error variance decomposition, we find: a bidirectional relationship when GB10Y is considered as the long‐term rate and a unidirectional relationship that moves from short‐ to long‐term interest rates when AAA is considered. These conclusions show that monetary policy is able to permanently affect long‐term interest rates and the central bank has a certain degree of freedom in setting the levels of the short‐term policy rate.     

Competition and the Provision of Banking Services to SMEs in the U.K.

This paper examines the report produced by the Competition Commission on the provision of SME banking services in the U.K. The report is assessed in terms of underlying assumptions used to describe and assess how banks operate and perform. The Competition Commission suggested “remedies” are drawn from a specific economic model assumed to be representative of the U.K. banking industry. It is concluded the remedies proposed by the Competition Commission are misplaced and may impose a substantial future cost on both banks and SMEs receiving banking services. It is proposed that the ramifications of this case are substantial for the present system of allocating bank funding to SMEs, in both the U.K. and international economies where similar antitrust or competition guidelines are employed.     

Does banking consolidation worsen firms’ access to credit? Evidence from the German economy

This paper deals with the question whether the ongoing process of banking consolidation, which can be observed all over the world, worsens SMEs’ access to credit. We focus in our empirical study on SMEs in Germany, a country where SMEs are the backbone of the economy. A negative trend in the provision with bank credit may thus adversely affect growth and employment. Based on a comprehensive dataset on German firms and banks we find—contrary to public fear—that the ongoing banking consolidation in Germany does not have a significant negative impact on the financing of German firms during the observation period from 1996 to 2002.