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Marketplace Lending of SMEs

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  • Douglas J. Cumming
  • Lars Hornuf

Abstract

Peer-to-business lending refers to online platforms facilitating loans from individuals to smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We conjecture that easy-to-understand risk ratings conveyed by the platform play a pronounced role in influencing the borrowing success of SMEs and that more sophisticated financial information and adverse selection are largely absent in these markets. We introduce a dataset of 414 SME marketplace loans and 8,236 online loan days to test these propositions. The data examined provide strong support for the importance of simple platform ratings in influencing investor behavior, while the effect of more detailed financial information is less pronounced.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas J. Cumming & Lars Hornuf, 2020. "Marketplace Lending of SMEs," CESifo Working Paper Series 8100, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8100
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    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete & Juan Piñeiro-Chousa & M. Ángeles López-Cabarcos & Daniel Palacios-Marqués, 2022. "Crowdlending: mapping the core literature and research frontiers," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(8), pages 2381-2411, November.
    3. Caglayan, Mustafa & Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr & Xiong, Xiong, 2020. "Asset mispricing in peer-to-peer loan secondary markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Christian Haddad & Lars Hornuf, 2021. "The Impact of Fintech Startups on Financial Institutions' Performance and Default Risk," CESifo Working Paper Series 9050, CESifo.
    5. Bastien Lextrait, 2021. "Scaling up SME's credit scoring scope with LightGBM," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-25, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    6. Carlos Sanchis-Pedregosa & Emma Berenguer & Gema Albort-Morant & Jorge Anton Sanz, 2020. "Guaranteed Crowdlending Loans: A Tool for Entrepreneurial Finance Ecosystem Sustainability," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 22(55), pages 775-775, August.
    7. Bollaert, Helen & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2021. "Fintech and access to finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    debt crowdfunding; entrepreneurial finance; digital platforms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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