External Credit Ratings and Bank Lending

Christophe Cahn, Mattia Girotti and Federica Salvad
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Federica Salvade

Working papers from Banque de France

Abstract: We study how third-party rating information influences firms' access to bank financing and real outcomes. We exploit a refinement in the rating scale that occurred in France in 2004. The new rules made some firms within each rating class receive a positive rating surprise. We find that such firms enjoy greater and cheaper access to bank credit. In particular, they obtain more credit from previously less informed lenders, and start new bank relationships more easily. Consequently, they rely on equity to a lower extent and invest more. These findings suggest that credit ratings help reducing the hold-up problem and increase competition among banks.

Keywords: Credit Ratings; Banks; Lending Technology; Corporate Financing; Real Effects; Holdup problem. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban and nep-cfn
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bfr:banfra:691

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