This paper studies a municipal credit agency, which is a specialized financial institution facilitating municipalities' access to international capital markets. I document that gaining access to the agency's credit facility decreases municipal borrowing costs compared to commercial bank loans....

In this paper, we examine the impact of mergers among German savings banks on the extent to which these savings banks engage in small business lending. The ongoing consolidation in the banking industry has sparked concerns about the continuous availability of credit to small businesses which has...

Die Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau – kurz KfW – fördert seit über 60 Jahren die deutsche Wirtschaft mit Darlehen zu vergünstigten Konditionen. Dabei fördert der Geschäftsbereich KfW-Mittelstandsbank insbesondere den deutschen Mittelstand sowie Existenzgründer. Dieser Artikel...