IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/finmgt/v52y2023i2p333-374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pricing strategies in BigTech lending: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Lu
  • Jianxing Wei
  • Weixing Wu
  • Yi Zhou

Abstract

This paper analyzes a BigTech lender's pricing strategies in the business‐to‐customer unsecured loan market using a proprietary data set of consumer loans in China. We find that the credit rating constructed by the BigTech lender is informative of the customers' default risk. Moreover, the interest rate decreases and the credit limit increases with the credit rating. Interestingly, the BigTech lender charges different interest rates to its customers based on the customer channel, although it does not provide information about the customers' default risk. Following the passage of the China Banking Regulatory Commission Act, which reduced credit market competition, the BigTech lender increased the current rate and decreased the credit limit. We rationalize these empirical findings in a simple model of credit contract design.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Lu & Jianxing Wei & Weixing Wu & Yi Zhou, 2023. "Pricing strategies in BigTech lending: Evidence from China," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 52(2), pages 333-374, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:52:y:2023:i:2:p:333-374
    DOI: 10.1111/fima.12416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/fima.12416
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/fima.12416?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Shum, 2017. "Econometric Models for Industrial Organization," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 10033, January.
    2. Rajkamal Iyer & Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Erzo F. P. Luttmer & Kelly Shue, 2016. "Screening Peers Softly: Inferring the Quality of Small Borrowers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1554-1577, June.
    3. Jerry Hausman & Gregory Leonard & J. Douglas Zona, 1994. "Competitive Analysis with Differentiated Products," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 34, pages 143-157.
    4. repec:adr:anecst:y:1994:i:34:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Jacobson, Tor & Roszbach, Kasper, 2003. "Bank lending policy, credit scoring and value-at-risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 615-633, April.
    6. Ying Fan, 2013. "Ownership Consolidation and Product Characteristics: A Study of the US Daily Newspaper Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1598-1628, August.
    7. David B. Gross & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2002. "Do Liquidity Constraints and Interest Rates Matter for Consumer Behavior? Evidence from Credit Card Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 149-185.
    8. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & Philipp Schnabl & James Vickery, 2019. "The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1854-1899.
    9. Deaton, Angus, 1988. "Quality, Quantity, and Spatial Variation of Price," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 418-430, June.
    10. Yiping Huang & Ms. Longmei Zhang & Zhenhua Li & Han Qiu & Tao Sun & Xue Wang, 2020. "Fintech Credit Risk Assessment for SMEs: Evidence from China," IMF Working Papers 2020/193, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Sule Alan & Gyongyi Loranth, 2013. "Subprime Consumer Credit Demand: Evidence from a Lender's Pricing Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(9), pages 2353-2374.
    12. Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Raghavendra Rau & Robert Wardrop & Tania Ziegler, 2020. "Fintech and big tech credit: a new database," BIS Working Papers 887, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Buchak, Greg & Matvos, Gregor & Piskorski, Tomasz & Seru, Amit, 2018. "Fintech, regulatory arbitrage, and the rise of shadow banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 453-483.
    14. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2021. "Foundations of Demand Estimation," NBER Working Papers 29305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Laibson, David I. & Agarwal, Sumit & Driscoll, John C. & Gabaix, Xavier, 2009. "The Age of Reason: Financial Decisions over the Life-Cycle with Implications for Regulation," Scholarly Articles 4554335, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    16. Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Yi Huang & Hyun Song Shin & Pablo Zbinden, 2019. "BigTech and the changing structure of financial intermediation," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 34(100), pages 761-799.
    17. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    18. Stijn Claessens & Jon Frost & Grant Turner & Feng Zhu, 2018. "Fintech credit markets around the world: size, drivers and policy issues," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    19. René M. Stulz, 2019. "FinTech, BigTech, and the Future of Banks," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 31(4), pages 86-97, December.
    20. Besanko, David & Thakor, Anjan V, 1987. "Collateral and Rationing: Sorting Equilibria in Monopolistic and Competitive Credit Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 28(3), pages 671-689, October.
    21. Sumit Agarwal & John C. Driscoll & Xavier Gabaix & David Laibson, 2009. "The Age of Reason: Financial Decisions over the Life Cycle and Implications for Regulation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 40(2 (Fall)), pages 51-117.
    22. Kasper Roszbach, 2004. "Bank Lending Policy, Credit Scoring, and the Survival of Loans," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 946-958, November.
    23. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    24. Leonardo Gambacorta & Yiping Huang & Han Qiu & Jingyi Wang, 2019. "How do machine learning and non-traditional data affect credit scoring? New evidence from a Chinese fintech firm," BIS Working Papers 834, Bank for International Settlements.
    25. Victor Stango & Jonathan Zinman, 2016. "Borrowing High versus Borrowing Higher: Price Dispersion and Shopping Behavior in the U.S. Credit Card Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 979-1006.
    26. Igor Livshits, 2015. "Recent Developments In Consumer Credit And Default Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 594-613, September.
    27. Magri, Silvia & Pico, Raffaella, 2011. "The rise of risk-based pricing of mortgage interest rates in Italy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 1277-1290, May.
    28. Liran Einav & Mark Jenkins & Jonathan Levin, 2012. "Contract Pricing in Consumer Credit Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(4), pages 1387-1432, July.
    29. Broecker, Thorsten, 1990. "Credit-Worthiness Tests and Interbank Competition," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(2), pages 429-452, March.
    30. Sumit Agarwal, 2010. "Distance and Private Information in Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2757-2788, July.
    31. Manove, Michael & Padilla, A Jorge & Pagano, Marco, 2001. "Collateral versus Project Screening: A Model of Lazy Banks," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(4), pages 726-744, Winter.
    32. Hong Ru & Antoinette Schoar, 2016. "Do Credit Card Companies Screen for Behavioral Biases?," NBER Working Papers 22360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Bailey, Warren & Huang, Wei & Yang, Zhishu, 2011. "Bank Loans with Chinese Characteristics: Some Evidence on Inside Debt in a State-Controlled Banking System," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(6), pages 1795-1830, December.
    34. Song Han & Benjamin J. Keys & Geng Li, 2018. "Unsecured Credit Supply, Credit Cycles, and Regulation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 1184-1217.
    35. Waldfogel, Joel, 2003. "Preference Externalities: An Empirical Study of Who Benefits Whom in Differentiated-Product Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(3), pages 557-568, Autumn.
    36. Martin Ruckes, 2004. "Bank Competition and Credit Standards," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 1073-1102.
    37. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    38. Jing Jian Xiao & Chunsheng Tao, 2020. "Consumer finance/household finance: the definition and scope," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, June.
    39. Jun (Qj) Qian & Philip E. Strahan & Zhishu Yang, 2015. "The Impact of Incentives and Communication Costs on Information Production and Use: Evidence from Bank Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1457-1493, August.
    40. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    41. Tobias Berg & Valentin Burg & Ana Gombović & Manju Puri, 2020. "On the Rise of FinTechs: Credit Scoring Using Digital Footprints," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(7), pages 2845-2897.
    42. repec:cup:jfinqa:v:46:y:2011:i:06:p:1795-1830_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    43. Liran Einav & Mark Jenkins & Jonathan Levin, 2013. "The impact of credit scoring on consumer lending," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 44(2), pages 249-274, June.
    44. Bester, Helmut, 1985. "Screening vs. Rationing in Credit Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(4), pages 850-855, September.
    45. Dwight M. Jaffee & Thomas Russell, 1976. "Imperfect Information, Uncertainty, and Credit Rationing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 651-666.
    46. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    47. Thomas, Lyn C., 2009. "Consumer Credit Models: Pricing, Profit and Portfolios," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199232130.
    48. Xavier Vives, 2019. "Digital Disruption in Banking," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 243-272, December.
    49. So Yeon Chun & Miguel A. Lejeune, 2020. "Risk-Based Loan Pricing: Portfolio Optimization Approach with Marginal Risk Contribution," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(8), pages 3735-3753, August.
    50. Thomas Philippon, 2020. "On fintech and financial inclusion," BIS Working Papers 841, Bank for International Settlements.
    51. Adair Morse, 2015. "Peer-to-Peer Crowdfunding: Information and the Potential for Disruption in Consumer Lending," NBER Working Papers 20899, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dong, Yingwei & Gou, Qin & Qiu, Han, 2023. "Big tech credit score and default risk ——Evidence from loan-level data of a representative microfinance company in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tobias Berg & Andreas Fuster & Manju Puri, 2022. "FinTech Lending," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 187-207, November.
    2. Kowalewski, Oskar & Pisany, Paweł, 2022. "Banks' consumer lending reaction to fintech and bigtech credit emergence in the context of soft versus hard credit information processing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. José María Liberti & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2018. "Information: Hard and Soft," NBER Working Papers 25075, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev, 2021. "Fintech: what’s old, what’s new?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Tetyana Balyuk, 2023. "FinTech Lending and Bank Credit Access for Consumers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 555-575, January.
    6. Laeven, Luc & Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Ratnovski, Lev, 2020. "Financial Intermediation and Technology: What’s Old, What’s New?," CEPR Discussion Papers 15004, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Thorsten Beck & Leonardo Gambacorta & Yiping Huang & Zhenhua Li & Han Qiu, 2022. "Big techs, QR code payments and financial inclusion," BIS Working Papers 1011, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. Nicola Branzoli & Ilaria Supino, 2020. "FinTech credit: a critical review of empirical research," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 549, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. DeFusco, Anthony A. & Tang, Huan & Yannelis, Constantine, 2022. "Measuring the welfare cost of asymmetric information in consumer credit markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 821-840.
    10. Oskar Kowalewski & Pawel Pisany & Emil Slazak, 2021. "What determines cross-country differences in fintech and bigtech credit markets?," Working Papers 2021-ACF-02, IESEG School of Management.
    11. Salvatore Cardillo & Raffaele Gallo & Francesco Guarino, 2021. "Main challenges and prospects for the European banking sector: a critical review of the ongoing debate," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 634, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    12. Danisewicz, Piotr & Elard, Ilaf, 2023. "The real effects of financial technology: Marketplace lending and personal bankruptcy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    13. Wang, Xiaoting & Hou, Siyuan & Kyaw, Khine & Xue, Xupeng & Liu, Xueqin, 2023. "Exploring the determinants of Fintech Credit: A comprehensive analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    14. He, Zhiguo & Huang, Jing & Zhou, Jidong, 2023. "Open banking: Credit market competition when borrowers own the data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 449-474.
    15. Yannelis, Constantine & Zhang, Anthony Lee, 2023. "Competition and selection in credit markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2).
    16. Eccles, Peter & Grout, Paul & Siciliani, Paolo & Zalewska, Anna, 2021. "The impact of machine learning and big data on credit markets," Bank of England working papers 930, Bank of England.
    17. Huang, Yiping & Li, Xiang & Qiu, Han & Yu, Changhua, 2023. "BigTech credit and monetary policy transmission: Micro-level evidence from China," BOFIT Discussion Papers 2/2023, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    18. Pierri, Nicola & Timmer, Yannick, 2022. "The importance of technology in banking during a crisis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 88-104.
    19. Ahnert, Toni & Kuncl, Martin, 2022. "Government loan guarantees, market liquidity, and lending standards," Working Paper Series 2710, European Central Bank.
    20. Chen, Xiao & Huang, Bihong & Shaban, Mohamed, 2022. "Naïve or sophisticated? Information disclosure and investment decisions in peer to peer lending," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:52:y:2023:i:2:p:333-374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.