We analyze whether information asymmetry between issuers and investors leads to rating model arbitrage in Collateralized Debt Obligation markets. Rating model arbitrage is defined as the issuer's deliberate capitalization of information asymmetry at the investor's cost on the basis of different...

We employ a unique dataset of 6,669 credit assessments for 3,542 small businesses by nine banks using an identical rating model over the period 2006-2011 to examine (i) to what extent loan officers use their discretion to smooth credit ratings of their clients, and (ii) to assess whether this...

In small business lending the four-eyes principle leads loan officers to propose inflated credit ratings for their clients. Inflated ratings are, however, anticipated and corrected by the credit officers responsible for approving credit assessments. More experienced loan officers inflate those...