IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v242y2026ics0167268126000193.html

Trust in banks: Fostering (Naïve) firm-bank relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand, Jérémie
  • Burietz, Aurore
  • Klein, Paul-Olivier

Abstract

We refine the definition of trust in banking by isolating the role of institution-based trust, defined as trust in banks in general, and look at the effects of variations of institution-based trust on the development of recurring firm-bank relationships. Using U.S. syndicated loan transaction data from 1998 to 2016, we show that borrowers and lenders deploy more intense interpersonal relationships in enhanced trust environments. However, when generally trusted, banks tend to exploit these relationships by reducing their lending commitments and raising loan spreads. This outcome can be attributed to the emergence of a naïve form of interpersonal trust on the part of the borrower.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand, Jérémie & Burietz, Aurore & Klein, Paul-Olivier, 2026. "Trust in banks: Fostering (Naïve) firm-bank relationships," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:242:y:2026:i:c:s0167268126000193
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268126000193
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107431?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    2. Berger, Allen N. & Black, Lamont K., 2011. "Bank size, lending technologies, and small business finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 724-735, March.
    3. David-Jan Jansen & Robert Mosch & Carin Cruijsen, 2015. "When Does the General Public Lose Trust in Banks?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 48(2), pages 127-141, October.
    4. Sim B. Sitkin & Nancy L. Roth, 1993. "Explaining the Limited Effectiveness of Legalistic “Remedies” for Trust/Distrust," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(3), pages 367-392, August.
    5. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2011. "Trust in Public Institutions over the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 281-287, May.
    6. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    7. repec:hal:journl:hal-03976673 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sharpe, Steven A, 1990. "Asymmetric Information, Bank Lending, and Implicit Contracts: A Stylized Model of Customer Relationships," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1069-1087, September.
    9. Jay B. Barney & Mark H. Hansen, 1994. "Trustworthiness as a Source of Competitive Advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 175-190, December.
    10. Becchetti, Leonardo & Conzo, Pierluigi, 2011. "Enhancing capabilities through credit access: Creditworthiness as a signal of trustworthiness under asymmetric information," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 265-278.
    11. Ang, James S. & Cheng, Yingmei & Wu, Chaopeng, 2015. "Trust, Investment, and Business Contracting," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 569-595, June.
    12. Degryse, Hans & Van Cayseele, Patrick, 2000. "Relationship Lending within a Bank-Based System: Evidence from European Small Business Data," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 90-109, January.
    13. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    14. Harhoff, Dietmar & Korting, Timm, 1998. "Lending relationships in Germany - Empirical evidence from survey data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(10-11), pages 1317-1353, October.
    15. Deqiu Chen & Xuejiao Liu & Cong Wang, 2016. "Social Trust and Bank Loan Financing: Evidence from China," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 52(3), pages 374-403, September.
    16. Hyun Song Shin, 2009. "Reflections on Northern Rock: The Bank Run That Heralded the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 101-119, Winter.
    17. Charles Calomiris & Thanavut Pornrojnangkool, 2009. "Relationship Banking and the Pricing of Financial Services," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 35(3), pages 189-224, June.
    18. Binks, Martin R & Ennew, Christine T, 1997. "The Relationship between U.K. Banks and Their Small Business Customers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 167-178, April.
    19. Brown, Sarah & Gray, Daniel & McHardy, Jolian & Taylor, Karl, 2015. "Employee trust and workplace performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 361-378.
    20. Ivashina, Victoria, 2009. "Asymmetric information effects on loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 300-319, May.
    21. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    22. Amir Sufi, 2007. "Information Asymmetry and Financing Arrangements: Evidence from Syndicated Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 629-668, April.
    23. Douglas W. Diamond & Philip H. Dybvig, 2000. "Bank runs, deposit insurance, and liquidity," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 24(Win), pages 14-23.
    24. Ivashina, Victoria & Scharfstein, David, 2010. "Bank lending during the financial crisis of 2008," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 319-338, September.
    25. Steven C Currall & Andrew C Inkpen, 2002. "A Multilevel Approach to Trust in Joint Ventures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(3), pages 479-495, September.
    26. Moro, Andrea & Fink, Matthias, 2013. "Loan managers’ trust and credit access for SMEs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 927-936.
    27. Dennis, Steven & Nandy, Debarshi & Sharpe, Lan G., 2000. "The Determinants of Contract Terms in Bank Revolving Credit Agreements," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 87-110, March.
    28. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    29. 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.
    30. Dewally, Michaël & Shao, Yingying, 2014. "Liquidity crisis, relationship lending and corporate finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 223-239.
    31. Dimitris Georgarakos & Giacomo Pasini, 2011. "Trust, Sociability, and Stock Market Participation," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(4), pages 693-725.
    32. Carole Howorth & Andrea Moro, 2006. "Trust within Entrepreneur Bank Relationships: Insights from Italy," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(4), pages 495-517, July.
    33. Dudley, Evan & Zhang, Ning, 2016. "Trust and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 363-387.
    34. Tensie Steijvers & Wim Voordeckers & Koen Vanhoof, 2010. "Collateral, relationship lending and family firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 243-259, April.
    35. Ying Tang & Chao Deng & Andrea Moro, 2017. "Firm-bank trusting relationship and discouraged borrowers," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 519-541, July.
    36. Bertrand, Jérémie & Burietz, Aurore & Weill, Laurent, 2021. "The month-of-the-year effect in corporate lending," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    37. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    38. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2008. "Tracing the Impact of Bank Liquidity Shocks: Evidence from an Emerging Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1413-1442, September.
    39. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, 2014. "The Employment Effects of Credit Market Disruptions: Firm-level Evidence from the 2008-9 Financial Crisis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 1-59.
    40. Kim, Moshe & Surroca, Jordi & Tribó, Josep A., 2014. "Impact of ethical behavior on syndicated loan rates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 122-144.
    41. Li, Yan & Lu, Ruichang & Srinivasan, Anand, 2019. "Relationship Bank Behavior during Borrower Distress," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(3), pages 1231-1262, June.
    42. Angelini, P. & Di Salvo, R. & Ferri, G., 1998. "Availability and cost of credit for small businesses: Customer relationships and credit cooperatives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 925-954, August.
    43. Patrick Bolton & Xavier Freixas & Leonardo Gambacorta & Paolo Emilio Mistrulli, 2016. "Relationship and Transaction Lending in a Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(10), pages 2643-2676.
    44. Gorton, Gary & Metrick, Andrew, 2012. "Securitized banking and the run on repo," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 425-451.
    45. 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.
    46. Maskara, Pankaj K. & Mullineaux, Donald J., 2011. "Information asymmetry and self-selection bias in bank loan announcement studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 684-694, September.
    47. José María Liberti & Mitchell A Petersen, 2019. "Information: Hard and Soft," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jérémie Bertrand & Paul-Olivier Klein & Jean-Loup Soula, 2022. "Liquidity Creation and Trust Environment," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 201-232, December.
    2. Allen N. Berger & Tanakorn Makaew & Raluca Roman, 2015. "Did bank borrowers benefit from the TARP program : the effects of TARP on loan contract terms," Research Working Paper RWP 15-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    3. Hirsch, Bernhard & Nitzl, Christian & Schoen, Matthias, 2018. "Interorganizational trust and agency costs in credit relationships between savings banks and SMEs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 37-50.
    4. Carole Howorth & Andrea Moro, 2012. "Trustworthiness and interest rates: an empirical study of Italian SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 161-177, July.
    5. Brick, Ivan E. & Palia, Darius, 2007. "Evidence of jointness in the terms of relationship lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 452-476, July.
    6. Bertrand, Jérémie & Klein, Paul-Olivier & Pasiouras, Fotios, 2024. "National culture of secrecy and firms’ access to credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    7. Yan Alperovych & Anantha Divakaruni & Sophie Manigart, 2022. "Lending when relationships are scarce : The role of information spread via bank networks," Post-Print hal-04325549, HAL.
    8. Alperovych, Yan & Divakaruni, Anantha & Manigart, Sophie, 2022. "Lending when relationships are scarce: The role of information spread via bank networks," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Dwenger, Nadja & Fossen, Frank M. & Simmler, Martin, 2020. "Firms’ financial and real responses to credit supply shocks: Evidence from firm-bank relationships in Germany," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    10. Keil, Jan, 2023. "Lending relationships when creditors are in control," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Voordeckers, Wim & Steijvers, Tensie, 2006. "Business collateral and personal commitments in SME lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 3067-3086, November.
    12. Tamara Vovchak, 2017. "Bank Credit, Liquidity Shocks and Firm Performance: Evidence from the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp584, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    13. Hussain, Inayat & Durand, Robert B. & Harris, Mark N., 2021. "Relationship lending: A source of support or a means of exploitation?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    14. Choudhary, M. Ali & Jain, Anil, 2022. "Finance and inequality: The distributional impacts of bank credit rationing," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Loukil Sahar & Jarboui Anis, 2016. "Loan officers and soft information production," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1199521-119, December.
    16. Stefano Filomeni & Michele Modina & Elena Tabacco, 2023. "Trade credit and firm investments: empirical evidence from Italian cooperative banks," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1099-1141, April.
    17. Olivier De Jonghe & Hans Dewachter & Klaas Mulier & Steven Ongena & Glenn Schepens, 2020. "Some Borrowers Are More Equal than Others: Bank Funding Shocks and Credit Reallocation [A theory of systemic risk and design of prudential bank regulation]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(1), pages 1-43.
    18. Tang, Ying & Wang, Biliang & Moro, Andrea & Chen, Jinyu & Sheehan, Maura, 2025. "Trade credit financing, social trust, and financial distress: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Vu, Tram & Do, Viet & Skully, Michael, 2015. "Local versus foreign banks: A home market advantage in loan syndications," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 29-39.
    20. Yu, Lin & Ye, Jiahui & Yang, Lin, 2025. "From endowed trust to earned trust: Firms located in trusted regions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

    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:eee:jeborg:v:242:y:2026:i:c:s0167268126000193. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    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.