SMEs and Bank Lending Relationships: The Impact of Mergers

Janet Mitchell, Hans Degryse and Nancy Masschelein

No 5061, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of bank mergers on firm-bank lending relationships using information from individual loan contracts in Belgium. We analyse the effects of bank mergers on the probability of borrowers maintaining their lending relationships and on their ability to continue tapping bank credit. The Belgian financial environment reflects a number of interesting features: high banking sector concentration; ?in-market? mergers with large target banks; importance of large banks in providing external finance to SMEs; and low numbers of bank lending relationships maintained by SMEs. We find that bank mergers generate short-term and longer-term effects on borrowers' probability of losing a lending relationship and on credit availability. Mergers also have heterogeneous impacts across borrower types, including borrowers of acquiring and target banks, borrowers of differing size, borrowers with single versus multiple relationships, and borrowers with differing relationship intensities. Firms borrowing from acquiring banks are less likely to lose their lending relationship, while target bank borrowers are more likely to lose their relationship or see their credit availability harmed. Overlap borrowers ? borrowing from two of the merging banks ? are less likely to lose their relationship than firms borrowing from only one of the merging banks or firms borrowing from non-merging banks.

Keywords: Bank mergers; Bank lending relationships; Sme loans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ent, nep-fin and nep-fmk
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

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Related works:
Working Paper: SMEs and bank lending relationships: the impact of mergers (2005)
Working Paper: SMEs and Bank Lending Relationships: the Impact of Mergers (2004)
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