Relationship Lending within a Bank-Based System: Evidence from European Small Business Data

We investigate relationship lending using detailed contract information from nearly 18,000 bank loans to small Belgian firms operating within the continental European bank-based system. Specifically, we investigate the impact of different measures of relationship strength on price and nonprice terms of the loan contract. We test for the possibility of rent shifting by banks. The evidence shows two opposing effects. On the one hand, the loan rate increases with the duration of a bank–firm relationship. On the other hand, the scope of a relationship, defined as the purchase of other information-sensitive products from a bank, decreases the loan's interest rate substantially. Relationship duration and scope thus have opposite effects on loan rates, with the latter being more important. We also find that the collateral requirement is decreasing in the duration of the relationship and increasing in its scope. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G21, G32.     

The Information Revolution and Small Business Lending: The Missing Evidence

This paper provides empirical confirmation for Petersen and Rajan??s (J Finance 57:2533?C2570, 2002) widely accepted conjecture that information technology was the primary driver of the observed increase in small business borrower-lender distances in the U.S. in recent years. Using a different data source for small business loans, we show that annual increases in borrower-lender distances were slow and steady prior to 1993 (the end point in Petersen and Rajan??s data) but accelerated rapidly after that. Importantly, we are able to assign at least half of this acceleration to the adoption of credit scoring technologies by the lending banks. Our tests also reveal strong statistical associations between lending distances and borrower characteristics, lender characteristics, market conditions, regulatory constraints, moral hazard incentives, and principal-agent incentives.     

The Benefits of Relationship Banking: Evidence from Small Business Financing in Finland

Using unique small business credit-file data from a major Finnish bank, I analyze how relationship characteristics are associated with loan interest rates. Data includes the effective loan rate and variables that describe the duration and scope of relationship, collateralization, firm characteristics, bank’s internal risk rating, and loan characteristics. The results show that longer duration tends to lower the cost of credit and that a long-term bank/firm relationship is beneficial especially to high-risk firms. As the relationship matures, the loan premiums for high-risk firms decrease at higher rate than for low-risk firms.     

Small Banks, Small Business, and Relationships: An Empirical Study of Lending to Small Farms

We examine small banks lending to small farms. We find that relationships, as measured by the length of tenure of farm operators, are positively related to bank lending. We also find that de novo banks have a positive tendency to lend to small farms. When existing relationships between borrowers and incumbent lenders are stronger, de novo banks have greater difficulties in lending to small farms. We further find that, even within the category of small banks, lending to small farms (as a percentage of a banks assets) tends to decrease as the bank increases in size.     

Credit Unions and Small Business Lending

Among the issues raised by consolidation within the banking industry is a concern that small businesses will be less able to obtain credit as community banks are acquired by larger or non-local institutions. Community banks have traditionally been a major source of funding for small businesses. The impact of bank consolidation on credit availability may depend in part on whether the remaining community institutions expand their small business lending activities. This study examines whether credit unions have a propensity to extend business loans in markets that have experienced bank merger and acquisition activity. We find some evidence that credit unions are more likely to engage in business lending in markets characterized by greater bank merger and acquisition activity. Moreover, the estimated economic significance is meaningful in many of the specifications.

Bank Consolidation and Small Business Lending: The Role of Community Banks

This paper examines how bank consolidation activity affected small business lending in local U.S. banking markets during two 3-year study periods, focussing on the role played by community banks in the process. During the 1994–1997 period, we find that consolidation activity involving big banks is associated with lower loan growth, whereas community bank consolidations and a greater presence of community banks in the market are associated with higher loan growth. During the 1997–2000 period, consolidation activity is either unrelated to small business loan growth or is associated with higher loan growth. In both study periods we find that, net of organization reclassifications due to consolidation or asset growth, the share of small business lending funded by community banks rose, particularly in markets undergoing consolidation.     

Changes in Non-Local Lending to Small Business

In this paper, I use recently collected Community Reinvestment Act loan data to examine how small business lending in local geographic areas (defined as markets) by lenders not physically located in those areas changed between 1996 and 2001. The results show that the importance of outside lending increased substantially over this period when measured in terms of the number of loans rather than the dollar volume of loans. The levels and rates of growth in out-of-market lending are more modest if the share of out-of-market lending is expressed in dollar volumes and almost insubstantial if organizations that engage in substantial credit card lending are excluded as out-of-market lenders. Using a fixed-effects model and an extensive panel data set, I find that the share of outside lending into local geographic markets is positively associated with local market concentration and the average wage of tellers in the market, consistent with the hypothesis that outside loans are to some degree substitutes for in-market loans.     

货币政策信贷渠道的经济区域效应研究——基于我国31个省际面板数据的经验证据

本文以2005年1月—2010年12月我国31个省份的月度数据为研究样本,运用面板向量自回归模型(Panel-VAR)对我国货币政策信贷渠道的传导效果进行了实证检验,研究结果表明:我国货币政策信贷渠道的传导效果存在明显的区域差异,对于经济发达地区来说,信贷投放在促进经济高速增长的同时,并不会带来显著的通货膨胀压力;而对于经济较发达地区和落后地区而言,信贷的投放并未有力推动经济的增长,反而会带来较为明显的通货膨胀压力。     

Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending

The distance between small firms and their lenders is increasing, and they are communicating in more impersonal ways. After documenting these systematic changes, we demonstrate they do not arise from small firms locating differently, consolidation in the banking industry, or biases in the sample. Instead, improvements in lender productivity appear to explain our findings. We also find distant firms no longer have to be the highest quality credits, indicating they have greater access to credit. The evidence indicates there has been substantial development of the financial sector, even in areas such as small business lending.     

我国中小企业信贷风险识别因子的有效性分析——基于北京地区中小企业的信贷数据

中小企业在世界多国经济发展中占有举足轻重的地位,逐步成为商业银行主要的信贷对象,巴塞尔资本协议Ⅱ(BaselⅡ)由此对中小企业作出了重要性规定,以提高银行对中小企业客户信贷风险管理的重视。鉴于我国中小企业信贷数据缺失和质量较差的现状,本文以北京地区中小企业信贷数据为基础,利用二项逻辑回归(binary logistic)分析,比较定量数据和定性数据在我国中小企业信用风险识别中的重要性,并探求我国中小企业信用风险判别中较为重要的变量。本文的结论也将对与中国具有相似中小企业信贷现状的发展中国家具有一定程度的借鉴意义。     

Small Business Equity Returns: Empirical Evidence from the Business Credit Card Securitization Market

We present a new approach for estimating small business equity returns. This approach applies the Merton (1974) credit model to the returns on entrepreneurial business credit card debt securitizations and solves for the implied equity returns for the small businesses owned by the cardholders. The estimated small business equity premium is 10.74%. The standard deviation of small business equity returns is 56.37%. We validate the methodology by applying it to investment-grade corporate bonds and recovering a public equity premium of 6.17%.     

Bank Consolidation and Soft Information Acquisition in Small Business Lending

We empirically examine the impact of bank consolidation on bank acquisition of soft information about borrowers. Using a dataset of small business financing, we find that mergers of small banks have a negative impact on soft information acquisition, whereas mergers of large banks have no impact. We also find some evidence that an increase in organizational complexity upon a merger, rather than a post-merger cost-cut, is likely to cause a negative and significant impact on soft information acquisition by small banks. These findings are consistent with the organizational theory that predicts a comparative advantage of simple and flat organizations in acquiring and processing soft information.     

A Neural Network Approach for Analyzing Small Business Lending Decisions

In this paper, we apply the neural network method to small business lending decisions. We use the neural network to classify the loan applications into the groups of acceptance or rejection, and compare the model results with the actual decisions made by loan officers. Data were collected from a leading bank in Central New York. The sample contains important financial statement and business information of borrowers and the loan officers' decisions. We conduct the network training on the data sample and find that the neural network has a stronger discriminating power for classifying the acceptance and rejection groups than traditional parametric and nonparametric classifiers. The results show that the neural network model has a high predictive ability. Our findings suggest that neural networks can be a very useful tool for enhancing small-business lending decisions and reducing loan processing time and costs.     

Specialization in Bank Lending: Evidence from Exporting Firms

We develop a novel approach for measuring bank specialization using granular data on borrower activities and apply it to Peruvian exporters and their banks. We find that borrowers seek credit from banks that specialize in their export destinations, both when expanding exports and when exporting to new countries. Firms experiencing country-specific export demand shocks adjust borrowing disproportionately from specialized banks. Specialized bank credit supply shocks affect exports disproportionately to countries of specialization. Our results demonstrate that firm credit demand is bank- and activity-specific, which reduces banking competition and affects the transmission and amplification of shocks through the banking sector.     

The Benefits of Overvaluation: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions

Theoretical and empirical evidence debates whether acquirers can exploit their overvalued equity and create value by purchasing less overvalued or undervalued target firms. Shleifer and Vishny (2003) and Savor and Lu (2009) argue in favor of this, while Fu, Lin, and Officer (2013) and Akbulut (2013) provide evidence against. I revisit this issue and develop a quasi-experimental design. The misvaluation effect for stock acquirers that are more overvalued than their targets is isolated and measured. My findings offer direct evidence in favor of the Shleifer and Vishny (2003) market-timing hypothesis.     

房价上涨对P2P网络借贷成本的影响分析——来自“人人贷”的经验证据

本文利用中国P2P行业代表企业“人人贷”网络贷款平台的交易数据和中国70个大中城市的房价数据,实证研究了房价上涨对P2P网络借贷市场上的借款利率所产生的影响。实证结果表明,房价上涨显著增加了P2P借贷市场上的借款利率。进一步分析发现,房价上涨对P2P借贷市场上生产经营类、买房类和其他消费类借款项目的借款利率均具有显著的正向影响,且这一增加效应在生产经营类和买房类借款项目中体现得更为明显。此外,基于异质性的分析还发现,相比于一二线城市,房价上涨对三四线城市借款项目的借款利率影响更大。本文的研究发现,房价上涨对新兴互联网信贷市场的影响机制存在,这为相关部门制定房价调控和互联网金融监管政策提供了参考和补充。     

Information from Relationship Lending: Evidence from Loan Defaults in China

Using a proprietary database from a large Chinese state‐owned bank, we examine whether information evolved from banking relationships predicts commercial loan default by industrial firms. We find that the bank's relationship information is significantly linked to the incidence of default, and that its contribution to prediction accuracy is larger than any hard information. Furthermore, the effect of relationship information is stronger among firms that have a more sustained banking relationship. Our findings indicate that, at least in the emerging markets, a bank's relationship information still matters for large firms, despite the fact that hard information for such firms is abundant.