foster SME lending and attention has focused on improving the institutional environment, such that the financial system is … more willing to lend to SMEs. In this paper, we directly ask banks (the main providers of SME external finance) what … and retail sectors. They perceive the SME market as highly profitable, large, and with good prospects. Moreover, banks are …

A puzzling but consistent result in the empirical literature on banking is that firms with close bank ties do not grow … faster than bank-independent firms. In this paper, we reconsider the link between relationship lending and firms' growth … and health status. We explore the influence of long-lasting bank relationships on employment and asset growth of a large …

weaker credit markets ex ante and consistent with local bank branches using cheap targeted credit lines to expand lending …

volatility of growth and profitability are bank-size dependent, and (iii) the relationship between growth and profitability of a … bank. Using a dynamic panel model estimated by GMM for a mixed sample of more than 1500 banks from 65 countries, we find no … evidence of persistence in bank growth. However, our findings suggest significant persistence in bank profitability. Moreover …

' financial condition before and during the financial crisis. Employing unique data on the geographical location of all bank … branches in the UK, we connect firms' access to bank credit to the financial condition (i.e., bank health and the use of core … deposits) of all bank branches in the vicinity of the firm over the period 2004-2011. Before the crisis, banks' local financial …