This paper investigates whether loan officer's level of seniority within the bank explains credit spreads. Based on a unique hand-collected database on loan applications from SMEs to a French cooperative bank between 1996 and 2009, the study suggests that senior loan officers charge higher...

Two dysfunctions can affect the credit market: credit rationing and firm's discouragement. While the former has been studied in detail for more than 40 years, the latter has only been in the spotlight since 2003. In this work, we contribute to the understanding of this “demand-side failure”...

Do creditor rights influence the use of relationship lending? With data from EFIGE, gathered during a 2010 survey spanning seven European countries, this article addresses this question. First, it determines that banks and firms are more willing to implement relationship lending technology in...