We propose a model of financial system architecture that highlights the positive interaction between banks and markets in a setting where each agent believes that she can evaluate information better than any other agent. Banks emerge endogenously and their interaction with markets is facilitated...

We show that when borrowers are privately informed about their creditworthiness and lenders have a soft budget constraint, efficient investment requires a limit on the fraction of a firm’s cash flows that can be pledged to outsiders. That is, pledgeability should neither be too low nor too...