We empirically examine the impact of bank consolidation on bank acquisition of soft information about borrowers. Using … complexity upon a merger, rather than a post-merger cost-cut, is likely to cause a negative and significant impact on soft …

[REVISED AUG 2019]We investigate the shrinking community banking sector and the impact on local small business lending … results indicate that, relative to counties where the acquirer had operations before the merger, local SBL declined … significantly more in counties where only the target had operations before the merger. This result holds even after controlling for …