Correspondent banks allow local banks in emerging markets to access the international payments system. This helps local banks to make cross-border payments, clear currencies, and provide trade finance. The recent retrenchment of global correspondent banks following the increased costs of...

We exploit proprietary information on severed correspondent banking relationships (due to the stricter enforcement of financial crime regulation) to assess how payment disruptions impede cross-border trade. Using firm-level export data from emerging Europe, we show that when local respondent...

We study how terminated correspondent banking relationships affect international trade. Drawing on firm-level export data from emerging Europe, we show that when local banks lose access to correspondent services, their corporate clients experience significant export declines. This trade...