Publications

22 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Reading the Financial Crisis Warning Signs: Credit Markets and the 'Red-Zone'

credit market dynamics—and investor behavior. HBS Working Knowledge spoke with Robin Greenwood, the George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking at Harvard Business School, about the role markets may play in... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Banking

21 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Is a Gap in Small-Business Credit Holding Back the American Economy?

noting that a regional or community bank is their main financing partner. Is There A Credit Gap For Small Businesses? There is disagreement over whether there is indeed a View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Manufacturing

September 2016
Case

Financial Services at Falabella (A)

By: C. Fritz Foley and Agustin M. Hurtado

In 2010, the board and senior management team of Falabella, a leading retailer with operations throughout Latin America, faced choices about what to do with its financial services division. More than 4.5 million customers had CMR credit cards that could be used in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Credit; Financial Institutions; Personal Finance; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Latin America; Chile; Argentina; Colombia; Peru

Educators

22 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Online Banks Fill Funding Needs for Small Business

access capital” Historically, this segment of the market has been small compared to the $700 billion in small business bank credit assets. But since the onset of the financial crisis, and particularly during... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking; Banking

2014
Working Paper

The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game

By: Karen G. Mills and Brayden McCarthy

Small businesses are core to America's economic competitiveness. Not only do they employ half of the nation's private sector workforce—about 120 million people—but since 1995 they have created approximately two-thirds of the net new jobs in our country. Yet in recent... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Financing and Loans; United States

28 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Government Can Do More to Unfreeze Small Business Credit

(Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles based on a Harvard Business School working paper by Karen Mills that analyzes the current state of availability of bank capital for small business.) Access to View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking

26 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

A New Way to Cut Credit Card Debt: Pay Off One Purchase at a Time

who chose to use the novel repayment option tended to be younger, have lower credit card balances, and shorter tenures with the bank than those who did not. Through the field experiment and other lab... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

September 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Supplement

Citibank: Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Documents the decision taken by Citibank managers in 1989 regarding a new product. View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Banking Industry; Asia; Oceania

Research Summary

The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access During the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game

Small businesses are core to America's economic competitiveness. Not only do they employ half of the nation’s private sector workforce—about 120 million people—but since 1995 they have created approximately two-thirds of the net new jobs in our country. Yet in... View Details

2013
Working Paper

These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System

By: Stephen Haber and Aldo Musacchio

In 1997, the Mexican government reversed long-standing policies and allowed foreign banks to purchase Mexico's largest commercial banks and relaxed restrictions on the founding of new, foreign-owned banks. The result has been a dramatic shift in the ownership structure... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Balance and Stability; Foreign Direct Investment; Banks and Banking; Society; Economics; Banking Industry; Mexico

18 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Are Banks the ‘Bad Guys’? Overdraft Fees Are Crushing Low-Income Customers

a bigger chunk of their overall revenue. So the message is not, ‘You should go to your credit union rather than Wells Fargo.’ The message is, ‘Check your individual bank and look at the fees, and make sure... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

2018
Working Paper

Bank Risk-Taking and the Real Economy: Evidence from the Housing Boom and Its Aftermath

By: Antonio Falato, Giovanni Favara and David Scharfstein

The short-termism of lenders amplifies boom-bust credit cycles, leading in turn to real costs for the aggregate economy. During the U.S. housing credit boom, publicly-traded banks increased mortgage lending activity and relaxed standards much more than privately-held... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Investment; Corporate Finance; Banks and Banking

August 2018
Case

Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (A)

By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin

Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage the bank’s already... View Details

Educators

2010
Book

A Call for Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy

By: Amar Bhide

Our prosperity requires the enterprise of innumerable individuals and businesses who exercise their imagination and judgment—and bear responsibility for outcomes. And it is through dialogue and relationships that widespread enterprise is fostered, not merely prices in... View Details

Keywords: Recession; Banking; Banks; Finance; Economics; Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Banking Industry

Find at Harvard

March 1995 (Revised June 1997)
Teaching Note

Citibank: Launching the Credit Card in Asia Pacific (A) TN

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

Teaching Note for (9-595-026). View Details

Keywords: Credit Cards; Banking Industry; Asia; Oceania

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

the confidence is eroded—banks tend to face revolving credit runs and market funding runs. The deposits run in the US might feel like a thing of the past, but the history of the 2008 crisis saw many such examples. Regulation and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Banking; Banking

November 2017
Article

Credit-Induced Boom and Bust

By: Marco Di Maggio and Amir Kermani

Can a credit expansion induce a boom and bust in house prices and real economic activity? This paper exploits the federal preemption of national banks in 2004 from local laws against predatory lending to gauge the effect of the supply of credit on the real economy.... View Details

Keywords: Great Recession; Subprime; Credit Supply; Credit Expansion; Household Leverage; Household Debt; Preemption Rule; Mortgages; Laws and Statutes; Credit; Household; Borrowing and Debt; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation