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Journal of Accounting and Economics Vol. 64 No. 2-3 2017

Commercial lending concentration and bank expertise: Evidence from borrower financial statements

Philip G. Berger1; Michael Minnis1; Andrew Sutherland2

1 University of Chicago · 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

open access

Abstract

Lending concentration features prominently in models of information acquisition by banks, but empirical evidence on its role is limited. Using bank-level loan exposures, we find banks are less likely to collect audited financial statements from firms in industries and regions in which they have more exposure. These findings are stronger in settings in which adverse selection is acute and muted when the bank lacks experience with an exposure. Our results offer novel evidence on how bank characteristics are related to the type of financial information they use and support theoretical predictions suggesting portfolio concentration reveals a bank's relative expertise.

DOI
10.1016/j.jacceco.2017.06.005
Volume
64
Issue
2-3
Pages
253-277
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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