This article examines the strategic nature of banks’ charitable giving by studying bank donations to local nonprofit organizations. Relying on the application of antitrust rules in bank mergers as an exogenous shock to local deposit market competition, we find that local competition affects banks’ local donation decisions. Using county-level natural disaster shocks, we show that banks with disaster exposure reallocate donations away from nonshocked counties, where they operate branches, and toward shocked counties. The reallocation of donations represents an exogenous increase in the local share of donations in nonshocked counties for banks with no disaster exposure and leads to an increase in the local deposit market shares of such banks. Furthermore, banks can potentially earn greater profits from making donations and tend to donate to nonprofits that have the most social impact. Overall, our evidence suggests that banks participate in corporate philanthropy strategically to enhance performance.

This study empirically investigates the relationship between banking integration and liquidity management. To measure banks’ connectivity, we use the number of partnerships proxied via the syndicated loan arrangements in which they serve as lead arrangers. If banks establish more business partnerships through syndicated loan arrangements, those under market stress are more likely to face increased funding costs, create reduced liquidity, and originate declined small business loans and mortgages. Those banks with more partners are shown to have a lower liquidity coverage ratio, suggesting that business partnerships create a disincentive toward liquidity risk management.