Lending Channels and Financial Shocks: The Case of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Trade Credit and the Japanese Banking Crisis

We offer a new paradigm for understanding the impact of financial shocks on the flow of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing from research on the lending view of monetary policy and research on SME financial contracting, we introduce the concept of glending channels.h A lending channel is a two-dimensional conduit through which SMEs obtain financing. In particular, a lending channel consists of a specific lending technology provided by a specific type of institution. We hypothesize that during financial shocks some lending channels may close and other channels may expand to absorb the slack. We empirically test a possible implication of this hypothesis by examining whether one lending channel, trade credit, played a significant role as a substitute for other lending channels in offsetting a contraction in SME lending of other lending channels during the Japanese financial crisis. We find little evidence that trade credit played such a role. To the contrary, we find some evidence that trade credit and financial institution lending are complements, rather than substitutes, during the Japanese financial crisis periods. This does not preclude the possibility that other lending channels may have behaved in a manner consistent with this hypothesis.Trade credit; Credit crunch

A more complete conceptual framework for financing of small and medium enterprises

The authors propose a more complete conceptual framework for analysis of credit availability for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this framework, lending technologies are the key conduit through which government policies and national financial structures affect credit availability. They emphasize a causal chain from policy to financial structures which affect the feasibility and profitability of different lending technologies. These technologies, in turn, have important effects on SME credit availability. Financial structures include the presence of different financial institution types and the conditions under which they operate. Lending technologies include several transactions technologies, plus relationship lending. The authors argue that the framework implicit in most of the literature is oversimplified, neglects key elements of the chain, and often yields misleading conclusions. A common oversimplification is the treatment of transactions technologies as a homogeneous group, unsuitable for serving informationally opaque SMEs, and a frequent misleading conclusion is that large institutions are disadvantaged in lending to opaque SMEs.Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Investment and Investment Climate,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring

Loan officers and relationship lending to SMEs

Previous research suggests that loan officers play a critical role in relationship lending by producing soft information about SMEs. For the first time, we empirically confirm this hypothesis We also examine whether the role of loan officers differs from small to large banks as predicted by Stein (2002). While we find that small banks produce more soft information, the capacity and manner in which loan officers produce soft information does not seem to differ between large and small banks. This suggests that, although large banks may produce more soft information, they likely tend to concentrate their resources on transactions lending.Banks and banking ; Bank loans ; Commercial credit

The ability of banks to lend to informationally opaque small businesses

Consolidation of the banking industry is shifting assets into larger institutions that often operate in many nations. Large international financial institutions are geared toward serving large wholesale customers. How does this affect the banking system's ability to lend to informationally opaque small businesses? The authors test hypotheses about the effects of bank size, foreign ownership, and distress on lending to informationally opaque small firms, using a rich new data set on Argentinean banks, firms, and loans. They also test hypotheses about borrowing from a single bank versus borrowing from several banks. Their results suggest that large and foreign-owned institutions may have difficulty extending relationship loans to opaque small firms, especially if small businesses are delinquent in repaying their loans. Bank distress resulting from lax prudential supervision and regulation appears to have no greater effect on small borrowers than on large borrowers, although even small firms may react to bank distress by borrowing from multiple banks, despite raising borrowing costs and destroying some of the benefits of exclusive lending relationships.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Decentralization,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Economic Theory&Research

Financing small and medium-size enterprises with factoring: global growth and its potential in eastern Europe

Factoring is a form of asset-based finance where the credit is extended based on the value of the borrower's accounts receivable. In recent years factoring has experienced phenomenal growth and has become an important source of financing-especially short-term working capital-for small and medium-size enterprises and corporations, reaching a worldwide volume of 760 billion euro in 2003. Although the importance of factoring varies considerably around the world, it occurs in most countries and is growing especially quickly in many developing countries. The authors explore the advantages of factoring over other types of lending for firms in developing economies, and discuss the informational, legal, tax, and regulatory barriers to its growth. They also examine the role of factoring in the eight Eastern European countries that became EU members on May 1, 2004-the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia, referred to as the EU 8. The authors conclude that factoring offers key advantages over other lending products and is likely to become more important in these countries, and suggest policies to accelerate its development.Financial Intermediation,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banking Law,Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Banking Law,Financial Intermediation,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research

Whither the community bank? relationship finance in the information age

Banks and banking ; Bank mergers

The past, present, and probable future for community banks

We review how deregulation, technological advance, and increased competitive rivalry have affected the size and health of the U.S. community banking sector and the quality and availability of banking products and services. We then develop a simple theoretical framework for analyzing how these changes have affected the competitive viability of community banks. Empirical evidence presented in this paper is consistent with the model's prediction that regulatory and technological change has exposed community banks to intensified competition on the one hand, but on the other hand has left well-managed community banks with a potentially exploitable strategic position in the industry. We also offer an analysis of how the number and distribution of community banks may change in the future.Community banks

Bank lending, financing constraints and SME investment

SME investment opportunities depend on the level of financing constraints that firms face. Earlier research has mainly focused on the controversial argument that cash flow-investment correlations increase with the level of these constraints. We focus on bank loans rather than cash flow. Our results show that investment is sensitive to bank loans for unconstrained firms but not for constrained firms, and trade credit predicts investment, but only for constrained firms. We also find that unconstrained firms use bank loans to finance trade credit provided to other firms. Our results illustrate alternative mechanisms that firms employ both as borrowers and lenders.Bank loans ; Investments

The effect of market size structure on competition: the case of small business lending

Banking industry consolidation has raised concern about the supply of small business credit since large banks generally invest lower proportions of their assets in small business loans. However, we find that the likelihood that a small business borrows from a bank of a given size is roughly proportional to the local market presence of banks of that size, although there are exceptions. Moreover, small business loan interest rates depend more on the size structure of the market than on the size of the bank providing the credit, with markets dominated by large banks generally charging lower prices.Small business ; Bank size ; Bank loans ; Banking market

Some Evidence on the Empirical Significance of Credit Rationing

This paper examines the credit rationing debate using detailed contract information on over one million commercial bank loans from 1977 to 1988. While commercial loan rates are Sticky, consistent with rationing, this stickiness varies with loan contract terms in ways that are not predicted by equilibrium credit rationing theory. In addition, the proportion of new loans issued under commitment does not increase significantly when credit markets are tight, despite the fact that borrowers without commitments can be rationed whereas commitment borrowers are contractually insulated from rationing. Overall, the data suggest that equilibrium rationing is not a significant macroeconomic phenomenon