Relationship banking and escalating commitments to bad loans

The relationship banking literature suggests that business relationships play an important role in the loan decisions of small banks. We test one aspect of this hypothesis using a cross-sectional panel dataset of small banks located in Texas from 1994 to 2002. Our results suggest that small banks located in smaller counties escalate their commitment to bad loans when compared with those located in larger counties, even after controlling for psychological and social factors that influence escalation tendencies. These results highlight the need for small banks to trade-off the positive benefits of adopting a relationship banking strategy against its unintended negative consequence. We provide some suggestions on how small banks may lessen their escalation tendencies despite adopting a relationship banking strategy. The results of this study also suggest that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that develop strong relational bonds with small banks may benefit from continued access to credit facilities, especially during periods when they experience financial distress.     

钢贸企业不良贷款对商业银行发展中小企业信贷业务的启示

在发展中小企业信贷业务方面,钢贸企业不良贷款的产生可资借鉴。钢贸企业不良贷款在宏观经济背景下逐渐生成,在运作模式变动中慢慢酝酿,并在银行监管不力及自身经营弊端的推动下最终爆发。以此为前车之鉴,小企业信贷的发放应强化宏观经济考察,建立科学的考核问责制度,健全中小企业早期风险预警体系,通过合理举措,消除不良信贷风险。     

Effect of climate-related risk on the costs of bank loans: Evidence from syndicated loan markets in emerging economies

Based on a novel dataset that combined syndicated loans originated in the emerging market economies with greenhouse gas emission intensity data of borrowers, this study examines whether and to what extent banks in these emerging markets have factored in climate transition risk in their lending decisions. On loan pricing, our results suggest that banks in these emerging markets have started to price-in climate transition risk for loans to emissions-intensive sector since the Paris Agreement. This could reflect their increased awareness of a climate-transition risk towards such firms. The extent of the transition risk premium is also found to be dependent on the environmental attitude of banks. Specifically, green banks are found to charge a higher loan spread than other banks, when lending to the same brown firm after the Paris Agreement. Apart from pricing a transition risk premium in the loan spread, we find evidence that banks may also consider imposing more stringent non-pricing contractual terms, such as shortening loan tenor and imposing collateral requirement, on brown firms especially when the associated credit risk impacts on these firms are more uncertain.     

Syndicated loans in emerging markets

There has been a considerable expansion of the volume of syndicated loans in emerging markets in the recent years. We provide the first analysis of the determinants of the decision of banks to syndicate a loan on a sample of loan facilities from 50 emerging countries. We show the significant role of loan characteristics and of financial development, banking regulation, and legal institutions, in the decision to syndicate a loan. We support the efforts of authorities to increase banking competition and efficiency, and to implement binding banking regulation on capital requirement to promote the expansion of syndicated loans.     

信用风险缓释工具对商业银行贷款定价之影响

本文基于我国上市公司的银行贷款数据,就信用风险缓释工具对商业银行贷款定价的影响进行了多视角的研究,发现只有抵押贷款和非抵押贷款的风险溢价间存在显著差异,且信用贷款和保证贷款的风险溢价显著小于抵押贷款。我国商业银行似乎对更高质量的风险缓释工具执行了较高的贷款利率,表明信用风险缓释工具在其贷款风险定价中未能得到应有的体现与反映。我国商业银行对抵押等工具的风险缓释作用的漠视,是与其特定的风险定价与激励机制有关;同时,基于供应链小企业融资中的过程控制等结构化设计等,讨论了如何降低抵押贷款风险溢价的方式和方法。     

SMEs’ Financing and Banks’ Profitability: A “Good Date” for Banks in Ghana?

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the core of most economies and are a major source of economic growth. In recent times, banks have been actively involved in the financing of SMEs through the provision of loans to this sector. This paper investigates the impact of SMEs financing on banks’ profitability in Ghana. The study employed the fixed effect model as the main regression tool. The study result reveals that SMEs significantly contribute to banks’ profitability in Ghana. Interestingly, transaction cost in administering SME loans was insignificant in all the models. Higher inflation reduces the real value of the loan and erodes the interest returns on the total credit to the SMEs. Conversely, growth of GDP enhances the growth of the bank profit.     

Collateral,relationship lending and family firms

Prior research suggested that relationship lending could play a role in solving asymmetric information problems between borrower and lender. Other studies suggest a relationship between family ownership and the shareholder–bondholder agency conflict. The present paper investigates the impact of relationship characteristics, family ownership and their interaction effects upon the use of collateral in SME lending. We examine the determinants of collateral as well as the determinants of the choice between business and personal collateral using decision tree analysis. The results reveal that relationship characteristics have a significant influence, but not always in the direction as expected. Moreover, they do not seem to be the primary determinants in our classification models. The most important determinants in both classification models seem to be the loan amount, total assets and the family versus non-family firm distinction. In addition, we differentiate between line-of-credit and non-line-of-credit loans and find significant differences between these decision trees.     

Lending technologies,lending specialization,and minority access to small-business loans

We investigate minority access to small-business loans using a probit model of loan application denial that recognizes two loan types (line-of-credit loans and non-line-of-credit loans) made by two lender types (commercial banks and nonbank financial institutions). We estimate our model on data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. We find evidence consistent with minority equal access to bank credit lines and nonbank non-line-of-credit loans in highly competitive loan markets; in less competitive markets we find evidence consistent with unequal access to these loans. We also find evidence consistent with unequal minority access to bank non-line-of-credit loans, regardless of loan market competitiveness. Our findings differ from previous research which treats small-business loans as a homogenous product and finds evidence consistent with unequal minority access to small-business loans generally. We argue that the existence of multiple small-business lending technologies and loan specialization by lenders account for our findings and demonstrate the need to treat small-business loans as a heterogeneous product when investigating equal access to small-business credit.     

On the Information Content of Bank Loan‐loss Disclosures: A Theory and Evidence from Japan

We develop a model in which banks use loan‐loss disclosures to signal private information about the credit quality of their loan portfolios. The cross‐sectional predictions generated by the model are shown to help to explain previously documented counterintuitive empirical regularities for US banks. We also take advantage of a recent Japanese regulatory policy shift, which first forbade the reporting of restructured loan balances and then forced full disclosure. This policy shift allows us to address a common difficulty in testing signalling theories, in that we are able to construct a timely proxy for the private information that we allege is being signalled. Consistent with our signalling model, we find that banks taking the largest write‐offs turn out later to be the strongest banks, with the fewest restructured loans.     

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.     

Knows Me and My Business: The Association between Preference for Relational Governance and Owners' Choice of Banks

We explore the relative importance of relational and economic preferences in small business owners' choice of a primary bank. We measured preferences directly at three points within 14 years and found that business owners' preference for relational versus economic governance was associated with the type of bank chosen and that the effect of relational preference remained relatively stable over time. Our findings support the idea that a preference for social relations might shape even the most straightforward economic decisions and suggest that variation in this preference is large, persistent enough to support business opportunities for small firms, including small banks.     

城市商业银行贷款集中度对资产质量影响的研究

文章利用我国27个省市的46家城市商业银行2007-2016年度数据,从客户集中度和行业集中度两个维度考察其对资产质量的影响。分析了城市商业银行授信策略的时滞性,比较了东部、中部、西部及东北地区城市商业银行贷款集中现象的差异,探讨了引进境外战略投资者对城市商业银行资产质量的影响。研究结论如下：城市商业银行的贷款集中度对资产质量具有负面影响,其中客户集中度的影响比较显著,行业集中度仅在东部地区存在显著性影响;贷款集中度对银行资产质量的影响存在滞后效应和累积效应;不同地区的城市商业银行其贷款集中度对资产质量的影响程度不一致,西部地区城市商业银行的行业集中度对资产质量具有强烈的负面影响;引进境外战略投资者的城市商业银行风险偏好较激进,贷款集中度对银行资产质量的影响较大。基于上述结论,文章最后提出了一些参考性建议。     

Bank Work Experience Versus Political Connections: Which Matters for Bank Loan Financing?

This paper examines how bank lending decisions are affected either by executives’ connections with banks, through their former banking experience, or by their political connections with governments, using a sample of bank loans granted to Chinese listed non‐state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) from 2003 to 2010. We find that bank loans are more closely related to profitability for firms with bank connections, while firms’ political connections weaken this relationship. We further find that the influence of bank connections is more significant for firms from less supported industries or less developed regions. Furthermore, firms with bank connections are less likely to become financially distressed after the initiation of their bank loans and experience higher future stock returns, while firms with political connections experience the opposite outcome. Overall, our results indicate that in the context of a relationship‐based economy like China, firms’ connections with banks create value by alleviating information asymmetry and improving banks’ lending decisions, while political connections result in capital misallocation and subsequent deterioration in performance.     

Determinants of Loan Repayment Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana: The Case of Asante Akyem Rural Bank

We examine the role of a typical set of determinants of loan repayment performance of SMEs in the context of a rural bank’s setting in Ghana. Our analysis using survey data suggests that, while higher application cost, loan size and interest rate exert significantly negative influence on loan repayment, higher educational background of the SME operators is associated with significantly better repayment performance. Interestingly, in comparison with those with only primary-level education, SME operators with tertiary education register the best repayment performance followed by those with secondary education. We provide detailed discussion and managerial implications of these findings.     

商业银行与小额贷款公司合作模式探索

小额贷款公司相对商业银行而言,资金来源渠道较窄。而商业银行相对小额贷款公司而言,贷款条件较苛刻,独立经营小额贷款成本较高。商业银行和小额贷款公司可以在相互竞争的环境下更好地合作发展小额贷款业务,建立小额贷款批发机制,创新以外包零售业务方式、以资源共享为主和以技术输出为主的双赢的合作模式,为中小企业和"三农"提供更多贷款。     

Bank Loan Announcements and Borrower Stock Returns: Does Bank Origin Matter?

Banks play a special role as providers of informative signals about the quality and value of their borrowers. Such signals, however, may have a quality of their own as the banks' selection and monitoring abilities may differ. Using an event study methodology, we study the importance of the geographical origin and organization of the banks for the investors' assessments of firms' credit quality and economic worth following loan announcements. Our sample comprises 986 announcements of bank loans to US firms over the period of 1980–2003. We find that investors react positively to such announcements if the loans are made by foreign or local banks, but not if the loans are made by banks that are located outside the firm's headquarters state. Investor reaction is, in fact, the largest when the bank is foreign. Our evidence suggest that investors value relationships with more competitive and skilled banks rather than banks that have easier access to private information about the firms. These results are applicable also to the European markets where regulatory and economic borders do not coincide and bank identities and reputation seem to matter a great deal.     

An analysis of the behavior of mature black-owned commercial banks

Accounting and statistical techniques are used to compare the behavior of a sample of mature black-owned banks with that of a matched set of nonminority-owned banks. The black banks are generally less profitable. The major reasons for this lower profitability include more liquid asset portfolios at the black banks, higher operating costs on liabilities, and higher rates of loan loss. Higher loan loss rates appear to be the single most important factor, with losses on real estate and possibly commercial and industrial loans probably being the most serious continuing sources of loan losses.     

有违约风险贷款担保价值研究

在发达国家政府是贷款担保的主要担保人,对贷款担保定价研究的重要假设是担保人没有违约风险。在中国,绝大多数的贷款担保人有违约风险。本文研究了担保人有违约风险情况下提供担保和相互担保的财务特征和定价,对比分析了提供担保和相互担保行为对贷款担保人和银行价值的影响。研究表明,有违约风险担保的价值随着担保人公司价值和借款额的增大而增大,随着借款公司价值的增大而减少;银行的损失随着借款额的增大而增大,随着担保人公司价值和借款人公司价值的增大而减少。银行提供贷款时允许企业相互担保等于潜在为相互担保企业提供了免费的部分担保,随着借款人风险的增大,相互担保条件下的银行或有损失急剧增大,相互担保对于银行的价值有显著的负面影响。     

Loan Officer Turnover and Credit Availability for Small Firms

This paper presents empirical evidence on the role loan officers play in facilitating small firm access to commercial bank loans. If loan officers use soft information (for example, assessments of character, information from customers and suppliers) to make lending decisions that would not otherwise be made on the basis of hard information (for example, tax returns or financial statements), then, frequent turnover in loan officers should be associated with an adverse effect on credit availability. This relationship is confirmed empirically using survey data of U.S. small firms in 1995 and 2001, where loan officer turnover is positively related to the turndown rate on the most recent loan application. Although loan officer turnover could be influenced by the turndown rate (for example, an owner changes banks and gets a new loan officer as a result of a recent turndown), its negative effect on credit availability persists under several different tests.     

Banking Reforms for the 21st Century: A Perfectly Stable Banking System Based on Financial Innovations*

Although bank loans themselves are somewhat illiquid because of private information, most of their cashflows are not. Recent financial innovations allow commercial loans to be liquefied via credit derivatives and actual and synthetic securitizations. The loan originating bank holds the remaining illiquid equity tranche containing the concentrated credit risk, private information rent and the ‘excess spread’ that incentivize the bank to continue to monitor and service the loans. Empirically, we find that the average size of the equity tranche is about 3% for the representative commercial loan portfolios in our sample. The liquefaction of bank loans makes possible a banking system that restricts the guaranteed accounts to be backed by 100% reserves and the non‐guaranteed deposits to be backed by liquid securitized loan tranches, while retaining the deposit‐lending synergy. Such a system is perfectly safe without deposit insurance and it renders banks bankruptcy‐remote without sacrificing a bank's traditional role as a financial intermediary.