The previous political dispensation limited black people’s participation in the SouthAfrican economy. Poor credit records, lack of training, resulting in skills and capacitygaps further limited entry into the lending market. These aspects are considered themain limitations in obtaining finance...

Previous research suggests that loan officers play a critical role in relationship lending by producing soft information about SMEs. For the first time, we empirically confirm this hypothesis We also examine whether the role of loan officers differs from small to large banks as predicted by...

Since August 1995, Japanese banks have had to pay a premium on Eurodollar and Euroyen interbank loans relative to their U.S. and U.K. competitors. This so-called "Japan premium" provides a market indicator of investor anxiety about the ability of Japanese banks to repay loans. We examine the...

Financial institutions often do not charge explicit fees for the services they provide, but are instead compensated by the spread between interest rates on loans and deposits. The lack of explicit fees in lending makes it difficult to measure the output of banks and other financial institutions....

We model the relationship between market power and both loan interest rates and bank risk without placing strong restrictions on the moral hazard problems between borrowers and banks and between banks and a government guarantor. Our results suggest that these relationships hinge on intuitive...