SME financing and the choice of lending technology

Using data from a unique survey in Japan, we investigate the relevance of different lending technologies which are utilized in lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises. We characterize loans from a technology point of view, and ask (i) to what extent different lending technologies are used, (ii) how complementary the technologies are, and (iii) what determines the choice of each technology. We find that although the financial statement lending technology is most commonly used, multiple lending technologies are usually used at the same time. This suggests the existence of complementarity among lending technologies. We also find that individual technologies have their distinct characteristics as well, and, among other findings, smaller banks and banks with a rich accumulation of soft information tend to lend using the relationship lending technology.