IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v97y2025ics1057521924006707.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The systemic risk of leveraged and covenant-lite loan syndications

Author

Listed:
  • Sina, A.
  • Billio, M.
  • Dufour, A.
  • Rocciolo, F.
  • Varotto, S.

Abstract

By modelling the whole U.S. syndicated loan market as a financial network from 2000 to 2022, we find that highly connected institutions hold significant shares of leveraged and covenant-lite loans. Our analysis indicates that the size of leveraged and covenant-lite syndicated loan portfolios increases financial institutions' systemic risk, particularly during recession periods. Although banks commonly sell syndicated loans shortly after origination, our results suggest that they remain vulnerable to pipeline risk. Our study has significant implications for policymakers and regulators, as it can aid in identifying banks exposed to systemic risk associated with leveraged and covenant-lite loans and in ranking systemically important financial institutions accordingly.

Suggested Citation

  • Sina, A. & Billio, M. & Dufour, A. & Rocciolo, F. & Varotto, S., 2025. "The systemic risk of leveraged and covenant-lite loan syndications," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1057521924006707
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103738
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521924006707
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103738?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Leveraged loans; Covenant-lite loans; Loan syndication; Systemic risk; Financial networks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • C45 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Neural Networks and Related Topics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1057521924006707. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.