IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecb/ecbwps/20202438.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial intermediation and technology: What’s old, what’s new?

Author

Listed:
  • Boot, Arnoud
  • Hoffmann, Peter
  • Laeven, Luc
  • Ratnovski, Lev

Abstract

We study the effects of technological change on financial intermediation, distinguishing between innovations in information (data collection and processing) and communication (relationships and distribution). Both follow historic trends towards an increased use of hard information and less in-person interaction, which are accelerating rapidly. We point to more recent innovations, such as the combination of data abundance and artificial intelligence, and the rise of digital platforms. We argue that in particular the rise of new communication channels can lead to the vertical and horizontal disintegration of the traditional bank business model. Specialized providers of financial services can chip away activities that do not rely on access to balance sheets, while platforms can interject themselves between banks and customers. We discuss limitations to these challenges, and the resulting policy implications. JEL Classification: G20, G21, E58, O33

Suggested Citation

  • Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev, 2020. "Financial intermediation and technology: What’s old, what’s new?," Working Paper Series 2438, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20202438
    Note: 1137913
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp2438~d0d447b9b6.en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2013. "A Model of Shadow Banking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1331-1363, August.
    2. Pagano, Marco & Jappelli, Tullio, 1993. "Information Sharing in Credit Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1693-1718, December.
    3. Hans Degryse & Steven Ongena, 2005. "Distance, Lending Relationships, and Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 231-266, February.
    4. Nicola Pierri & Yannick Timmer, 2020. "Tech in Fin before FinTech: Blessing or Curse for Financial Stability?," CESifo Working Paper Series 8067, CESifo.
    5. Itamar Drechsler & Alexi Savov & Philipp Schnabl, 2017. "The Deposits Channel of Monetary Policy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1819-1876.
    6. Thomas Philippon, 2015. "Has the US Finance Industry Become Less Efficient? On the Theory and Measurement of Financial Intermediation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1408-1438, April.
    7. 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.
    8. Meng Gao & Jiekun Huang & Itay Goldstein, 2020. "Informing the Market: The Effect of Modern Information Technologies on Information Production," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(4), pages 1367-1411.
    9. Arnoud W. A. Boot & Anjan V. Thakor, 2000. "Can Relationship Banking Survive Competition?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 679-713, April.
    10. Stiroh, Kevin J. & Rumble, Adrienne, 2006. "The dark side of diversification: The case of US financial holding companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 2131-2161, August.
    11. Berger, Allen N. & Miller, Nathan H. & Petersen, Mitchell A. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2005. "Does function follow organizational form? Evidence from the lending practices of large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-269, May.
    12. Berger, Allen N. & Udell, Gregory F., 2006. "A more complete conceptual framework for SME finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2945-2966, November.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Acharya, Viral V. & Schnabl, Philipp & Suarez, Gustavo, 2013. "Securitization without risk transfer," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(3), pages 515-536.
    16. Giovanni Dell’Ariccia & Dalida Kadyrzhanova & Camelia Minoiu & Lev Ratnovski, 2021. "Bank Lending in the Knowledge Economy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(10), pages 5036-5076.
    17. Mian, Shehzad L & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1992. "Accounts Receivable Management Policy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 169-200, March.
    18. Bai, Jennie & Philippon, Thomas & Savov, Alexi, 2016. "Have financial markets become more informative?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 625-654.
    19. Hakenes, Hendrik & Schnabel, Isabel, 2013. "Regulatory Capture by Sophistication," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79991, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Michael D. Bordo & Andrew T. Levin, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 23711, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Michel A. Habib & D. Bruce Johnsen, 1999. "The Financing and Redeployment of Specific Assets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 693-720, April.
    22. Hirshleifer, Jack, 1971. "The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 561-574, September.
    23. Guido Lorenzoni, 2008. "Inefficient Credit Booms," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(3), pages 809-833.
    24. Mathias Dewatripont & Jean Tirole, 1994. "The prudential regulation of banks," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/9539, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    25. Hans Degryse & Nancy Masschelein & Janet Mitchell, 2004. "SMEs and Bank Lending Relationships: the Impact of Mergers," Working Paper Research 46, National Bank of Belgium.
    26. Rod Garratt & Maarten van Oordt, 2019. "Systemic Privacy as a Public Good: A Case for Electronic Cash," Staff Working Papers 19-24, Bank of Canada.
    27. Puri, Manju & Rocholl, Jörg & Steffen, Sascha, 2017. "What do a million observations have to say about loan defaults? Opening the black box of relationships," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-15.
    28. Puri, Manju & Rocholl, Jörg, 2008. "On the importance of retail banking relationships," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 253-267, August.
    29. Miguel A. Ferreira & Pedro Matos & Pedro Pires, 2018. "Asset Management within Commercial Banking Groups: International Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(5), pages 2181-2227, October.
    30. 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.
    31. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 1995. "The Effect of Credit Market Competition on Lending Relationships," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 407-443.
    32. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2019. "Machine Learning Methods Economists Should Know About," Research Papers 3776, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    33. John M. Barron & Byung-Uk Chong & Michael E. Staten, 2008. "Emergence of Captive Finance Companies and Risk Segmentation in Loan Markets: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1), pages 173-192, February.
    34. Skander J. van den Heuvel, 2002. "Does bank capital matter for monetary transmission?," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 8(May), pages 259-265.
    35. Harald Hau & Yi Huang & Hongzhe Shan & Zixia Sheng, 2019. "How FinTech Enters China's Credit Market," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 60-64, May.
    36. Robert Hauswald & Robert Marquez, 2003. "Information Technology and Financial Services Competition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 921-948, July.
    37. HyunSong Shin, 2009. "Securitisation and Financial Stability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 309-332, March.
    38. Raghuram G. Rajan, 2006. "Has Finance Made the World Riskier?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(4), pages 499-533, September.
    39. David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "The Dark Side of Internal Capital Markets: Divisional Rent‐Seeking and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2537-2564, December.
    40. 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.
    41. Smith, Janet Kiholm, 1987. "Trade Credit and Informational Asymmetry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 863-872, September.
    42. Meng Gao & Jiekun Huang & Itay GoldsteinEditor, 2020. "Informing the Market: The Effect of Modern Information Technologies on Information Production," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1367-1411.
    43. Maryam Farboodi & Adrien Matray & Laura Veldkamp & Venky Venkateswaran, 2020. "Where Has All the Data Gone?," NBER Working Papers 26927, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    44. Itamar Drechsler & Alexi Savov & Philipp Schnabl, 2018. "Banking on Deposits: Maturity Transformation without Interest Rate Risk," NBER Working Papers 24582, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    45. William B. English, 2002. "Financial consolidation and monetary policy," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 8(May), pages 271-284.
    46. Mark Armstrong & John Vickers, 2019. "Discriminating against Captive Customers," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 1(3), pages 257-272, December.
    47. Houston, Joel F. & Ryngaert, Michael D., 1994. "The overall gains from large bank mergers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 1155-1176, December.
    48. Steven Drucker & Manju Puri, 2005. "On the Benefits of Concurrent Lending and Underwriting," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2763-2799, December.
    49. Johannes Stroebel, 2016. "Asymmetric Information about Collateral Values," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 1071-1112, June.
    50. Elena Loutskina & Philip E. Strahan, 2009. "Securitization and the Declining Impact of Bank Finance on Loan Supply: Evidence from Mortgage Originations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 861-889, April.
    51. Benjamin Reed Shiller, 2013. "First Degree Price Discrimination Using Big Data," Working Papers 58, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School, revised Jan 2014.
    52. Benjamin J. Keys & Tanmoy Mukherjee & Amit Seru & Vikrant Vig, 2010. "Did Securitization Lead to Lax Screening? Evidence from Subprime Loans," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 307-362.
    53. Elena Loutskina & Philip E. Strahan, 2011. "Informed and Uninformed Investment in Housing: The Downside of Diversification," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(5), pages 1447-1480.
    54. Boot, Arnoud W A & Greenbaum, Stuart I & Thakor, Anjan V, 1993. "Reputation and Discretion in Financial Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1165-1183, December.
    55. Hyun Song Shin, 2009. "Securitisation and Financial Stability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 309-332, March.
    56. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 2000. "Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 7-25, January.
    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. 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.
    2. Hasan, Iftekhar & Kwak, Boreum & Li, Xiang, 2023. "Financial technologies and the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission," IWH Discussion Papers 26/2020, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), revised 2023.

    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. 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.
    2. Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev, 2021. "Fintech: what’s old, what’s new?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. 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.
    4. Marko Jakšič & Matej Marinč, 2019. "Relationship banking and information technology: the role of artificial intelligence and FinTech," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 1-18, March.
    5. José María Liberti & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2018. "Information: Hard and Soft," NBER Working Papers 25075, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. D Dulani Jayasuriya & Mohamed Ayaz & Michael Williams, 2023. "The use of digital footprints in the US mortgage market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 353-401, March.
    7. Tali Bank & Nimrod Segev & Maya Shaton, 2023. "Relationship Banking and Credit Scores: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2023.05, Bank of Israel.
    8. Artashes Karapetyan & Bogdan Stacescu, 2014. "Information Sharing and Information Acquisition in Credit Markets," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1583-1615.
    9. Manasa Gopal & Philipp Schnabl, 2022. "The Rise of Finance Companies and FinTech Lenders in Small Business Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(11), pages 4859-4901.
    10. Sutherland, Andrew, 2018. "Does credit reporting lead to a decline in relationship lending? Evidence from information sharing technology," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 123-141.
    11. Nicola Pierri & Yannick Timmer, 2020. "Tech in Fin before FinTech: Blessing or Curse for Financial Stability?," CESifo Working Paper Series 8067, CESifo.
    12. Wilson, John O.S. & Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia & Molyneux, Philip, 2010. "Emerging themes in banking: Recent literature and directions for future research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 153-169.
    13. Keil, Jan, 2023. "Lending relationships when creditors are in control," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Wei, Xin & Liu, Xi & Zhang, Xueyong, 2022. "Shadow banking and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Eugene Kang & Asghar Zardkoohi & Ramona Paetzold & Donald Fraser, 2013. "Relationship banking and escalating commitments to bad loans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 899-910, May.
    16. Cerqueiro, Geraldo & Degryse, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2011. "Rules versus discretion in loan rate setting," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 503-529, October.
    17. Santikian, Lori, 2014. "The ties that bind: Bank relationships and small business lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-213.
    18. Thakor, Anjan V., 2020. "Fintech and banking: What do we know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    19. Norden, L., 2015. "The Role of Banks in SME Finance," ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research in Management EIA-2015-062-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    communication; financial innovation; financial intermediation; fintech; information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:ecb:ecbwps:20202438. 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: Official Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emieude.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.