Publications

March 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

U.S. Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Policy Reactions (A)

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

By March 2008, the U.S. Government and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board had taken various policy measures over the last few months to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis that threatened to drag the economy into a recession. The Bush administration approved a fiscal... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Central Banking; Mortgages; Policy; Business and Government Relations; United States

13 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

Cash and the Woman-Owned Business

businesses are also becoming more accessible. Financing through government-sponsored lending programs such as the 7(a) General Business Loan Guaranty program, the Certified Development Company (504) loan... View Details

Keywords: by Candida Brush, Nancy M. Carter, Elizabeth Gatewood, Patricia G. Greene & Myra M. Hart

24 Dec 2013
First Look

First Look: December 24

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 View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

20 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How Small Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak

and Fundbox, which specialize in loans to small businesses, are also considering ways to support the sector. Renegotiate terms of contracts and debt. Owners should ask landlords for more time to pay their rent, for example. They should... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Service; Food & Beverage

03 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 3, 2008

costly. They are less likely to be repaid. Nor are they put to good use: election year credit booms do not measurably affect agricultural output. Finally, I measure whether the average agricultural loan was beneficial, using variation... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 1993 (Revised November 1997)
Case

BayBank Boston

In 1992, the Federal Reserve released a study of mortgage lending patterns in Boston. It concluded that even when credit factors were taken into account, black and Hispanic applicants experienced higher rejection rates. Richard Pollard, chairman of BayBank Boston, had... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Ethics; Race; Mortgages; Banking Industry; Boston

Find at Harvard

01 Mar 2023
News

Is AI OK?

to weeding bias out of banking and lending, essentially removing from the picture human beings and their inherently biased decision-making processes. He understood that his father, a Black business owner in the Deep South, was repeatedly... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

07 Sep 2011
First Look

First Look: Sept. 7

use loan-level data to study how the organizational structure of banks impacts small business lending. We find that decentralized banks—where branch managers have greater autonomy over lending decisions—give larger View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2006 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Banco Hipotecario S.A.

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Arthur I Segel and Alexandra de Royere

In 2003, the chairwoman and controlling shareholder of Argentina's leading residential mortgage lender are considering how to bring the bank's restructuring to a successful conclusion as the country's economy continues to suffer from the impact of the 2001-2002... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Currency; Banks and Banking; Mortgages; Crisis Management; Competition; Argentina

01 Jun 2024
News

Conducting Business

discount. The owner went to the bank to borrow money for a new meat slicer or something expensive. The bank manager rejected his loan application, telling him that his business... View Details

Keywords: Michael Farmer (MBA 1971); illustration by Lucinda Rogers; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

19 May 2020
News

Exploring the Economics of a Pandemic; Alumni Forums Draw Closer Online

Black community as a private-enterprise desert, with devastating consequences.” To prevent this, he gave an overview of how to fill out the PPP loan application, and shared promising data from Seaway National View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

February 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Banco Compartamos: Life after the IPO

By: Michael Chu and Regina Garcia Cuellar

After an international IPO yielding extraordinary returns to original investors, Banco Compartamos, Mexico's leading microfinance institution, contemplates its future strategic and competing priorities: maintaining growth, defending industry, leadership, preserving... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Microfinance; Initial Public Offering; Non-Governmental Organizations; Competition; Value Creation; Banking Industry; Mexico