Sorry, We're Closed: Loan Conditions When Bank Branches Close and Firms Transfer to Another Bank

We study loan conditions when bank branches close and firms subsequently transfer to a branch of another bank in the vicinity.

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Steven Ongena (Universität Zürich)

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IWH conference room

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Steven Ongena is a Professor of Banking in the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich, a senior chair at the Swiss Finance Institute, a research professor at KU Leuven, and a research fellow in financial economics of CEPR. He is also a research professor at the Deutsche Bundesbank.

Programm

We study loan conditions when bank branches close and firms subsequently transfer to a branch of another bank in the vicinity. Such transfer loans allow us for the first time to observe the conditions granted when banks pool-price new applicants. Consistent with recent theoretical work on hold up in bank-firm relationships we find that transfer loans do not receive the discount in loan rates that prevails when firms otherwise switch banks. We hereby critically augment recent empirical evidence on firms changing banks and their loan rates.