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Borrower risk and the price and nonprice terms of bank loans

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Author Info
Philip E. Strahan
Abstract

Banks are in the business of lending to risky and hard-to-value businesses. This paper show that both the price and non-price terms of bank loans reflect observable components of borrower risk. As expected, riskier borrowers -- smaller borrowers, borrowers with less cash, and borrowers that are harder for outside investors to value -- pay more for their loans. In addition, the non-price terms of loans are systematically related to pricing; small loans, loans that are secured, and loans with relatively short maturity carry higher interest rates than other loans, even after controlling for publicly available measures of risk. This suggests that banks use both the price and non-price terms of loans as complements in dealing with borrower risk. To validate this interpretation, I also show that observably riskier firms face tighter non-price terms in their loan contracts. Loans to small firms, firms with low ratings, and firms with little cash available to service debt, for example, are more likely to be small, to be secured by collateral, and to have a short contractual maturity. Larger and more profitable firms are able to borrow on better terms across all three of these non-price dimensions.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of New York in its series Staff Reports with number 90.

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Date of creation: 1999
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:90

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Keywords: Bank loans ; Risk;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Mark Carey & Mitch Post & Steven A. Sharpe, 1998. "Does Corporate Lending by Banks and Finance Companies Differ? Evidence on Specialization in Private Debt Contracting," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(3), pages 845-878, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Houston, Joel & James, Christopher, 1996. " Bank Information Monopolies and the Mix of Private and Public Debt Claims," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(5), pages 1863-89, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Hamid Mehran & Robert A. Taggart & David Yermack, 1999. "CEO Ownership, Leasing, and Debt Financing," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 28(2), Summer.
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  11. Diamond, Douglas W & Dybvig, Philip H, 1983. "Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Liquidity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(3), pages 401-19, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. " The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Rajan, Raghuram & Winton, Andrew, 1995. " Covenants and Collateral as Incentives to Monitor," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1113-46, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Chan, Yuk-Shee & Kanatas, George, 1985. "Asymmetric Valuations and the Role of Collateral in Loan Agreements," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 17(1), pages 84-95, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Bhattacharya Sudipto & Thakor Anjan V., 1993. "Contemporary Banking Theory," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 2-50, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jonathan D. Jones & William W. Lang & Peter Nigro, 2001. "Recent trends in bank loan syndications: evidence for 1995-1999," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue May, pages 328-352.
  2. Kenneth Daniels & Gabriel Ramirez, 2008. "Information, Credit Risk, Lender Specialization and Loan Pricing: Evidence from the DIP Financing Market," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 35-59, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Evan Gatev & Philip E. Strahan, 2003. "Banks' Advantage in Hedging Liquidity Risk: Theory and Evidence from the Commercial Paper Market," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 03-01, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  4. Randall S. Kroszner & Philip E. Strahan, 2001. "Throwing Good Money after Bad? Board Connections and Conflicts in Bank Lending," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 02-12, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  5. David C. Smith, 2003. "Loans to Japanese borrowers," International Finance Discussion Papers 769, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  6. Frederic Boissay, 2001. "Credit rationing, output gap, and business cycles," Working Paper Series 087, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. David C. Smith, 2002. "Loans to Japanese borrowers," Pacific Basin Working Paper Series 02-11, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
  8. Lawrence J. White, 2000. "Bank Regulation in the United States: Understanding the Lessons of the 1980s and 1990s," Working Papers 00-02, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Tra, Pham Thi Thu & Lensink, Robert, 2006. "The Determinants of Loan Contracts to Business Firms: Empirical Evidence from a Private Bank in Vietnam," Working Papers RP2006/86, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  10. Evan Gatev & Philip E. Strahan, 2003. "Banks' Advantage in Hedging Liquidity Risk: Theory and Evidence from the Commercial Paper Market," NBER Working Papers 9956, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Ari Hyytinen, 2001. "Information Production, Banking Competition and the Market Structure of the Banking Industry," Discussion Papers 749, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy. [Downloadable!]
  12. Wako WATANABE, 2005. "How Are Loans by Their Main Bank Priced? Bank Effects, Information and Non-price Terms of Contract," Discussion papers 05028, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). [Downloadable!]
  13. Jun Qian & Philip E. Strahan, 2005. "How Law and Institutions Shape Financial Contracts: The Case of Bank Loans," NBER Working Papers 11052, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Mauro Napoletano & Domenico Delli Gatti & Giorgio Fagiolo & Mauro Gallegati, 2005. "Weird Ties? Growth, Cycles and Firm Dynamics in an Agent-Based Model with Financial-Market Imperfections," LEM Papers Series 2005/03, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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