IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bcb/wpaper/571.html

Does Fintech Lending Lower Financing Costs? Evidence From An Emerging Market

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Renato Haas Ornelas
  • Alexandre Reggi Pecora

Abstract

Using proprietary data of virtually all unsecured working capital loans to small businesses in Brazil, we find that online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lenders focus on smaller and riskier firms already served by banks. P2P clients get lower interest rates compared to traditional banks. Once they borrow from P2Ps, they find a lower rate on subsequent bank loans, indicating that banks try to recapture runaway borrowers. In response to P2P entry, incumbent banks in oligopolistic markets decrease their lending rates by 2.5 percentage points and expand credit to older firms with difficulty accessing credit. We rationalize these findings in a structural IO model of the banking sector, where banks and P2Ps have different profit functions and compete for clients with risk heterogeneity. We use the estimated model to calculate welfare gains. P2Ps significantly increase social welfare in oligopolistic markets by offering lower interest rates to riskier borrowers and forcing the banks to do the same. Welfare gains range from 10% of the local output in municipalities with only one incumbent bank to 1% in those with five banks.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Renato Haas Ornelas & Alexandre Reggi Pecora, 2022. "Does Fintech Lending Lower Financing Costs? Evidence From An Emerging Market," Working Papers Series 571, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcb:wpaper:571
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bcb.gov.br/content/publicacoes/WorkingPaperSeries/wps571.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thakor, Anjan, 2020. "Corrigendum to: Fintech and Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Jith Jayaratne & Philip E. Strahan, 1996. "The Finance-Growth Nexus: Evidence from Bank Branch Deregulation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(3), pages 639-670.
    3. Andrew Hertzberg & Andres Liberman & Daniel Paravisini, 2018. "Screening on Loan Terms: Evidence from Maturity Choice in Consumer Credit," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(9), pages 3532-3567.
    4. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, Enero-Abr.
    5. Angelo D'Andrea & Nicola Limodio, 2019. "High-Speed Internet, Financial Technology and Banking in Africa," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 19124, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    6. Victor Leonardo de Araujo & Marcos Antonio Macedo Cintra, 2011. "O Papel dos Bancos Públicos Federais na Economia Brasileira," Discussion Papers 1604, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    7. Mark Egan, 2019. "Brokers versus Retail Investors: Conflicting Interests and Dominated Products," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(3), pages 1217-1260, June.
    8. Huan Tang, 2019. "Peer-to-Peer Lenders Versus Banks: Substitutes or Complements?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1900-1938.
    9. Itay Goldstein & Wei Jiang & G Andrew Karolyi, 2019. "To FinTech and Beyond," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1647-1661.
    10. Dick, Astrid A., 2008. "Demand estimation and consumer welfare in the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1661-1676, August.
    11. Mark G. Guzman, 2000. "Bank structure, capital accumulation and growth: a simple macroeconomic model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 16(2), pages 421-455.
    12. Augereau, Angelique & Greenstein, Shane, 2001. "The need for speed in emerging communications markets: upgrades to advanced technology at Internet Service Providers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1085-1102, July.
    13. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2022. "Design-based analysis in Difference-In-Differences settings with staggered adoption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(1), pages 62-79.
    14. Mark Egan & Stefan Lewellen & Adi Sunderam, 2022. "The Cross-Section of Bank Value," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 2101-2143.
    15. Small, Kenneth A & Rosen, Harvey S, 1981. "Applied Welfare Economics with Discrete Choice Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(1), pages 105-130, January.
    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. Angelo D'Andrea & Nicola Limodio, 2019. "High-Speed Internet, Financial Technology and Banking in Africa," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 19124, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    2. Hao, Jing & Peng, Mengzu & He, Wenjia, 2023. "Digital finance development and bank liquidity creation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Tan, Changchun & Mo, Lingyu & Wu, Xiaomeng & Zhou, Peng, 2024. "Fintech development and corporate credit risk: Evidence from an emerging market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Fabio Bertoni & Stefano Bonini & Vincenzo Capizzi & Massimo G. Colombo & Sophie Manigart, 2022. "Digitization in the Market for Entrepreneurial Finance: Innovative Business Models and New Financing Channels," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(5), pages 1120-1135, September.
    5. Tien Phat Pham & Drahomira Pavelkova & Boris Popesko & Sinh Duc Hoang & Hoc Thai Huynh, 2024. "Relationship between fintech by Google search and bank stock return: a case study of Vietnam," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, December.
    6. Hasan, Iftekhar & Kwak, Boreum & Li, Xiang, 2024. "Financial technologies and the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Saklain, Md Sohel, 2024. "FinTech, systemic risk and bank market power – Australian perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    8. Eid, Nourhan & Yang, Junhong & Duygun, Meryem, 2024. "Bridging the credit gap: The influence of regional bank structure on the expansion of peer-to-peer lending," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6).
    9. Mark Egan & Stefan Lewellen & Adi Sunderam, 2022. "The Cross-Section of Bank Value," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 2101-2143.
    10. Kakhkharov, Jakhongir & Bianchi, Robert J., 2022. "COVID-19 and policy responses: Early evidence in banks and FinTech stocks," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Angelo D’Andrea & Nicola Limodio, 2024. "High-Speed Internet, Financial Technology, and Banking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(2), pages 773-798, February.
    12. Bellardini, Luca & Del Gaudio, Belinda Laura & Previtali, Daniele & Verdoliva, Vincenzo, 2022. "How do banks invest in fintechs? Evidence from advanced economies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. Khakan Najaf & Alice Chin & Adrian Lean Wan Fook & Mohamed M. Dhiaf & Kaveh Asiaei, 2024. "Fintech and corporate governance: at times of financial crisis," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 605-628, March.
    14. Wang, Qi & Liu, Ming & Xie, Kai, 2025. "Disappearing bank Branches: Evidence from China household finance survey," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Kyung Yoon Kwon & Philip Molyneux & Livia Pancotto & Alessio Reghezza, 2024. "Banks and FinTech Acquisitions," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 41-75, February.
    16. Yanfang Wang & Bin Zhang & Haifeng Hu, 2026. "How does FinTech development impact technological progress? A theoretical framework and empirical evidence," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 1-46, December.
    17. Cuadros-Solas, Pedro J. & Cubillas, Elena & Salvador, Carlos & Suárez, Nuria, 2024. "Digital disruptors at the gate. Does FinTech lending affect bank market power and stability?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    18. Khan, Habib Hussain & Ahmad, Mohammad Rais, 2025. "The fintech revolution: Exploring the potential of fintech finance in reducing corporate credit constraints," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. D’Acunto, Francesco & Ghosh, Pulak & Rossi, Alberto G., 2026. "How costly are cultural biases? Evidence from FinTech," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    20. Lu, Yao & Zhan, Shuwei & Zhan, Minghua, 2024. "Has FinTech changed the sensitivity of corporate investment to interest rates?—Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bcb:wpaper:571. 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: Rodrigo Barbone Gonzalez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.bcb.gov.br/en .

    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.