We show that multi-bank loan pools improve the risk-return profile of regional banks' loan business. Banks write simple contracts on the proceeds from pooled loan portfolios, taking into account the agency problems in joint loan production. Thereby, banks benefit from diversifying credit risk...

The study shows that multi-bank loan pool contracts improve the risk-return profile of banks' loan business. Banks write simple contracts on the proceeds from pooled loan portfolios, taking into account the free-rider problems in joint loan production. Thereby especially smaller banks benefit...

This paper is an early response to Campbell's (2006) call to analyze the role of financial intermediaries in household finance. We first sketch a basic theory of financial advice that proceeds from cognitive errors and costly information acquisition. We then derive hypotheses about honest and...

A widely recognized paper by Colin Mayer (1988) has led to a profound revision of academic thinking about financing patterns of corporations in different countries. Using flow-of-funds data instead of balance sheet data, Mayer and others who followed his lead found that internal financing is the...

This paper is a draft for the chapter quot;German Banks and Banking Structurequot; of the forthcoming book quot;The German Financial Systemquot; edited by J.P. Krahnen and R.H. Schmidt (Oxford University Press). As such, the paper starts out with a description of past and present structural...

We use two data sets, one from a large brokerage and another from a major bank, to ask: (i) whether financial advisors are more likely to be matched with poorer, uninformed investors or with richer and experienced investors; (ii) how advised accounts actually perform relative to self-managed...

Does BPO pay off at the firm-level? Although there are several studies which analyze the potential benefits of BPO, there is a virtual absence of research papers on BPO outcomes. Based on an analysis of 137 Business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures at 254 German banks in a period between 1994...

This paper empirically investigates a novel approach for financial advisors to enhance customer satisfaction by segmenting customers based on their financial sophistication. We surveyed 761 customers of two German retail banks on their satisfaction with their latest purchase of an investment...