Holding companies legally separate the assets and owners of a company creating a layer of liability protection …. Theoretically, this feature lowers the risk attributable to holding companies, enabling them to offer lower-cost debts compared to …. Testing this hypothesis requires a separate classification of holding and stand-alone companies' outstanding debts to compare …

credit market and in funding markets. The reduction in the supply of credit by Eurozone banks caused riskier borrowers to …. Although global bank lending is often reported to amplify the international credit cycle, we show that foreign banking acted as … a shock absorber that weathered the real consequences of the credit crunch in Europe …