The present paper investigates the number of bank relationships of small and medium-sized enterprises in Switzerland using survey data from 1996 and 2002. We differentiate between overall bank relationships and lending relationships and disaggregate the loan market with respect to firm sizes,...

Switzerland is one of the countries with the highest concentration of bank-customer relationships. The present paper seeks to find out whether this can be explained by the structure of Swiss firms or by the organization of the Swiss banking market. Using survey data from small and medium-sized...

Adopting a continuous-time portfolio framework with endogenous financial intermediation, this paper analyzes diversification in bank lending. First, an increase in the number of independent credits in a loan portfolio is shown to enhance intermediation activities. This supports the hypothesis of...

While it is conventional wisdom that small and medium-sized firms tend to hold multiple banking relationships, evidence about the financial behavior of micro firms is scarce. The present paper focuses on professionals as a special group of microenterprises. It explains their characteristics and...

The financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) plays a key role for the catching-up process of the East German economy after German reunification. German banks are often claimed to be too restrictive in their lending practices towards these firms. The present paper examines whether...

By drawing on results derived in financial and industrial economics, this paper seeks to clarify whether shareholding by banks in business firms has anticompetitive effects in the non-bank sector. Rather than being primarily in the banks' interest, industrial ownership by banks is shown to be...

This paper shows the risk taking role of banks within a continuous-time portfolio model. Banks are considered as risk-averse utility maximizers which differ from private investors and firms only by their degree of risk aversion. Since bankruptcy risk, described by a Poisson jump-process,...

Empirical research about structure, conduct and performance in banking markets has developed mostly independently from the microeconomic theory of banking. The present paper reviews the literature by focusing on the links between theoretical and empirical research. It considers basic conditions,...

This paper examines the role and determinants of collateral in emerging markets compared to mature ones. Analyzing a data set of 560 credit files of Thai commercial banks, we find that both the incidence and degree of collateralization are higher there than in developed markets. Thai banks use...

The financing of small and medium-sized firms is important for the catching-up of the East German to the West German economy since reunification. We explore whether it is restricted by unfavorable bank loan terms, using bank-survey data on lending decisions to small and medium-sized firms. A...