Going the Extra Mile: Distant Lending and Credit Cycles

ABSTRACT The average distance of U.S. banks from their small corporate borrowers increased before the global financial crisis, especially for banks in competitive counties. Small distant loans are harder to make, so loan quality deteriorated. Surprisingly, such lending intensified as the Fed raised...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of finance (New York) 2022-04, Vol.77 (2), p.1259-1324
Main Authors: GRANJA, JOÃO, LEUZ, CHRISTIAN, RAJAN, RAGHURAM G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bank deposits
Banking
Counties
Credit
Distant
Economic crisis
Federal Reserve monetary policy
Interest rates
International finance
Loans
Monetary policy
Recycling
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Summary:ABSTRACT The average distance of U.S. banks from their small corporate borrowers increased before the global financial crisis, especially for banks in competitive counties. Small distant loans are harder to make, so loan quality deteriorated. Surprisingly, such lending intensified as the Fed raised interest rates from 2004. Why? We show that banks' responses to higher rates led bank deposits to shift into competitive counties. Short‐horizon bank management recycled these inflows into risky loans to distant uncompetitive counties. Thus, rate hikes, competition, and managerial short‐termism explain why inflows “burned a hole” in banks' pockets and, more generally, increased risky lending.
ISSN:0022-1082
1540-6261
DOI:10.1111/jofi.13114