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Loan Officers and Relationship Lending

Author

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  • Hirofumi Uchida
  • Gregory F. Udell
  • Nobuyoshi Yamori

Abstract

Theoretical and empirical work suggests that commercial loan officers play a critical role in relationship lending by producing soft information about their SME borrowers. We test whether loan officers in the Japanese SME loan market perform this role in a manner that is consistent with the theoretical predictions in the relationship lending literature. While we find limited evidence that soft information may benefit SME borrowers, we do not find evidence that is on balance consistent with theoretical predictions that loan officers produce soft information that is not easily transmitted to others within the bank. These results are consistent with alternative explanations including the possibility that the social environment in Japan leads to a credit culture where it is easier to transmit soft information from one loan officer to another. It could also be consistent with the possibility that the relationship lending may not be particularly important in the Japanese SME loan market.

Suggested Citation

  • Hirofumi Uchida & Gregory F. Udell & Nobuyoshi Yamori, 2006. "Loan Officers and Relationship Lending," Discussion papers 06031, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:06031
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    Cited by:

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    2. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Other publications TiSEM 40d5005c-1626-4511-aa8a-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Bogdan Constantin VORONEANU, 2013. "Current Trends In The Approach Of The Credit Relationships Between Banks And Companies," Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 3(3), pages 91-97, June.
    4. Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Alberto Zazzaro, 2011. "Do Male and Female Loan Officers Differ in Small Business Lending? A Review of the Literature," Contributions to Economics, in: Giorgio Calcagnini & Ilario Favaretto (ed.), The Economics of Small Businesses, chapter 0, pages 195-219, Springer.
    5. Yamori, Nobuyoshi, 2009. "What Types of Small and Medium-sized Businesses Are Utilizing New Financial Products?," MPRA Paper 17494, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Discussion Paper 2010-63, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. Pietro Alessandrini & Andrea F. Presbitero & Alberto Zazzaro, 2010. "Bank size or distance: what hampers innovation adoption by SMEs?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(6), pages 845-881, November.
    8. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2010. "Does gender matter in bank-firm relationships? Evidence from small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2968-2984, December.
    9. Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Watanabe, Wako, 2008. "Bank size and lending relationships in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 242-267, June.
    10. Robert DeYoung & Douglas Evanoff & Philip Molyneux, 2009. "Mergers and Acquisitions of Financial Institutions: A Review of the Post-2000 Literature," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 87-110, December.
    11. Oh, Joon-Hee & Johnston, Wesley J., 2014. "Credit lender–borrower relationship in the credit card market – Implications for credit risk management strategy and relationship marketing," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1086-1095.
    12. Hetland, Ove Rein & Mjøs, Aksel, 2011. "Using Bank Mergers and Acquisitions to Understand Lending Relationships," Discussion Papers 2011/13, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    13. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Other publications TiSEM 300df022-4701-4773-a8b7-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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