Lending organization and credit supply during the crisis

Using a unique dataset, which combines bank organizational variables, information on lending techniques, firms' credit demand and others balance sheet indicators, we investigate the impact of lending organization on credit dynamics during the crisis period. Our main findings suggest that the variables shaping the organization of a bank in its lending activity to non financial firms have a complex impact on its ability to expand credit. Banks that heavily resort to credit scoring techniques actually reduced their credit expansion during the economic downturn. At the same time, banks that delegate more power to their local branch managers (LBM) were likely to expand loans at a higher rate. Finally, contrary to the evidence referred to the pre-crisis period, we find that a longer tenure of the LBM in the same branch is detrimental for the credit growth rate. These finding are robust to a wide set of robustness checks.