Publications

October 2020
Article

Corporate Legal Structure and Bank Loan Spread

By: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi

This study examines how a corporate legal structure may affect borrowing costs. Corporate legal structure refers to the legal fragmentation of a firm into multiple, separately incorporated entities. This fragmentation is bound to be a factor when lenders determine the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Legal Structure; Subsidiaries; Bank Loans; Minority Interest; Credit Risk; Organizational Structure; Business Subsidiaries; Financing and Loans

January 1991 (Revised October 1993)
Background Note

Note on Bank Loans

Describes traditional bank lending product, the role of the lending officer, credit evaluation, and the structuring of credit facilities and loan agreements. View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

November 1998 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Collateralized Loan Obligations and the Bistro Trust

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Ivan G. Farman

This case examines a large bank trying to protect itself from the risks and capital requirement created by its loan portfolio. Considers a variety of ways available to the firm to offload the risks. View Details

Keywords: Banking; Loan Evaluation; Financing Strategy; Credit; Risk Management; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Banking Industry

April–May 2021
Article

The Influence of Loan Officers on Loan Contract Design and Performance

By: Robert Bushman, Janet Gao, Xiumin Martin and Joseph Pacelli

We investigate the extent to which loan officers generate independent, individual effects on the design and performance of syndicated loans. We construct a large database containing the identities of loan officers involved in structuring syndicated loan deals, allowing... View Details

Keywords: Loan Officers; Covenants; Interest Spreads; Syndicated Loans; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Design; Performance

April 2015
Article

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

By: Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper

This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk assessment and lending decisions. We first show that while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Management Processes; Credit Products; Experimental Economics; Risk Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry

July 2022
Article

Countercyclical Prudential Buffers and Bank Risk-taking

By: Manuel Illueca, Lars Norden, Joseph Pacelli and Gregory F. Udell

We investigate the effects of countercyclical prudential buffers on bank risk-taking. We exploit the introduction of dynamic loan loss provisioning in Spain, mandating that banks use historical average loss rates in their estimation of loan loss provisions. We find... View Details

Keywords: Banks; Bank Regulation; Macroprudential Policies; Bank Lending; Loan Loss Provisioning; Risk Taking; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Risk and Uncertainty

08 Jun 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Loan Types and the Bank Lending Channel

Keywords: by Victoria Ivashina, Luc Laeven, and Enrique Moral-Benito; Financial Services

April 2012
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and Bank Loan Syndicate Structure

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

Using a novel data set on corporate ownership and control, we show that the divergence between the control rights and cash-flow rights of a borrowing firm's largest ultimate owner has a significant impact on the concentration and composition of the firm's loan... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Financing and Loans; Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Accounting; Crisis Management; Relationships; Law; Contracts; Banking Industry

06 Jul 2015
News

Italian bank takes cheese as collateral for loans

February 2015
Case

Credem: Banking on Cheese

By: Nikolaos Trichakis, Gerry Tsoukalas and Emer Moloney

Credem, an Italian regional bank, grants loans to Parmigiano Reggiano producers and holds the cheese as collateral in its own warehouse during the maturation process, essentially replacing part of the operations for the cheese producers and gaining deep operations... View Details

Keywords: Banks And Banking; Assets; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Operations; Financing and Loans; Commercial Banking; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Italy

2019
Working Paper

Do Banks Have an Edge?

By: Juliane Begenau and Erik Stafford

Overall, no! We show that the level and time series variation in cash flows for most bank activities are well matched by capital market portfolios with similar interest rate and credit risk to what banks report to hold. Ignoring operating expenses, bank loans earn high... View Details

Keywords: Banks; Market Efficiency; Bank Capital; Bank Debt; CAPM; Banking; Bank Deposits; Bank Funding Advantage; Leverage; Maturity Transformation; Replicating Portfolio; Efficiency; Banks and Banking; Capital Markets; Performance Evaluation; Performance Efficiency; Banking Industry; United States

SSRN

This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk-assessment and lending decisions. We first show that, while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more... View Details

30 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

Keywords: by Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz & Leora Klapper

01 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan

Since 1953, the regional bank Credito Emiliano has accepted curious collateral for small-business loans: giant wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Known locally as Credem, the bank is the subject of a new... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Banking

November–December 2019
Article

Making Sense of Soft Information: Interpretation Bias and Loan Quality

By: Dennis Campbell, Maria Loumioti and Regina Wittenberg Moerman

We explore whether behavioral biases impede the effective processing and interpretation of soft information in private lending. Taking advantage of the internal reporting system of a large federal credit union, we delineate three important biases likely to affect the... View Details

Keywords: Soft Information; Lending; Banking; Information; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Decision Making

April 2008 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Leveraged Loans 2007

By: Andre F. Perold and Erik Stafford

The leveraged loan market was in a crisis during the summer of 2007, following many years of low realized volatility (less than 4% per annum), an index of leveraged loans had fallen over 5% in the month of July. A sudden drop in capital market prices for an asset class... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Financial Crisis; Market Transactions; Disruption; Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Strategy; Capital Markets; Crisis Management; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; Banking Industry

01 Jul 2015
News

A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan

27 Aug 2012
News

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

October 2013 (Revised November 2018)
Background Note

Note on the Leveraged Loan Market

By: Victoria Ivashina

This note provides an introduction to the process of loan syndication and the evolution of the leveraged loan market. The note emphasizes the role of banks as loan originators and the evolution of the institutional investors' entry into the leveraged loan market. In... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking