IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v67y2021ics0927538x21000512.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Borrow low, lend high: Credit arbitrage by sophisticated investors

Author

Listed:
  • Tian, Geran
  • Wang, Xiaowen
  • Wu, Weixing

Abstract

We document that some investors arbitrage by borrowing and lending at the same time on Renrendai, one of the largest peer-to-peer lending platforms in China. They borrow at an annual interest rate of 7.31% and lend at 12.53% to earn the spread. Compared with non-arbitrageurs, arbitrageurs have larger portfolios and they diversify default risk by lending smaller amounts to many borrowers. Moreover, arbitrageurs are able to identify quality loans with lower risk and higher return, and thereby earn 1.19% higher risk-adjusted return than non-arbitrageurs do. As a result, 706 arbitrageurs earn 1.5 million yuan in 3 years. However, unsuccessful investments Granger cause some arbitrageurs to default, suggesting that arbitrageurs may increase platform risk. After the platform employ big data and reform the loan pricing mechanism from borrower-determined to platform-determined, loan interest rate decreases from 12.49% to 10.15%, and arbitrage phenomenon no longer exists. These findings suggest that arbitrageurs are highly sophisticated investors who make profits by utilizing financial leverage, diversifying credit risk, and identifying quality loans. Meanwhile, regulators should closely monitor arbitrage behaviors and constantly evaluate their consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Tian, Geran & Wang, Xiaowen & Wu, Weixing, 2021. "Borrow low, lend high: Credit arbitrage by sophisticated investors," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:67:y:2021:i:c:s0927538x21000512
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2021.101544
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X21000512
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2021.101544?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hackethal, Andreas & Haliassos, Michael & Jappelli, Tullio, 2012. "Financial advisors: A case of babysitters?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 509-524.
    2. Galema, Rients, 2020. "Credit rationing in P2P lending to SMEs: Do lender-borrower relationships matter?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Mark Egan, 2019. "Brokers versus Retail Investors: Conflicting Interests and Dominated Products," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(3), pages 1217-1260, June.
    4. Stefano DellaVigna & Ulrike Malmendier, 2004. "Contract Design and Self-Control: Theory and Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(2), pages 353-402.
    5. Thaler, Richard H & Shefrin, H M, 1981. "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(2), pages 392-406, April.
    6. Abreu, Dilip & Brunnermeier, Markus K., 2002. "Synchronization risk and delayed arbitrage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 341-360.
    7. Jesse Blocher & Marat Molyboga, 2017. "The Revealed Preference of Sophisticated Investors," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 23(5), pages 839-872, October.
    8. Mark Mitchell & Todd Pulvino & Erik Stafford, 2002. "Limited Arbitrage in Equity Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 551-584, April.
    9. Yufei Xia & Lingyun He & Yinguo Li & Nana Liu & Yanlin Ding, 2020. "Predicting loan default in peer‐to‐peer lending using narrative data," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 260-280, March.
    10. Chen, Yong & Kelly, Bryan & Wu, Wei, 2020. "Sophisticated investors and market efficiency: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 316-341.
    11. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    12. Menkhoff Lukas & Schmeling Maik & Schmidt Ulrich, 2010. "Are All Professional Investors Sophisticated?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(4), pages 418-440, December.
    13. Falko Fecht & Andreas Hackethal & Yigitcan Karabulut, 2018. "Is Proprietary Trading Detrimental to Retail Investors?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(3), pages 1323-1361, June.
    14. Hun‐Tong Tan & Elaine Ying Wang & Bo Zhou, 2014. "When the Use of Positive Language Backfires: The Joint Effect of Tone, Readability, and Investor Sophistication on Earnings Judgments," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 273-302, March.
    15. Stephen Foerster & Juhani T. Linnainmaa & Brian T. Melzer & Alessandro Previtero, 2017. "Retail Financial Advice: Does One Size Fit All?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1441-1482, August.
    16. Stephan Meyer & Sebastian Schroff & Christof Weinhardt, 2014. "(Un)skilled leveraged trading of retail investors," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 28(2), pages 111-138, May.
    17. Francesca Cornelli & David Goldreich & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2006. "Investor Sentiment and Pre‐IPO Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1187-1216, June.
    18. Austin H. Spencer, 2008. "The Free Lunch: Arbitrage Profits Associated with Credit Cards," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 243-247, March.
    19. Li, Yubin & Zhao, Chen & Zhong, Zhaodong, 2019. "Price discrimination against retail Investors: Evidence from mini options," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 50-64.
    20. Kapadia, Nikunj & Pu, Xiaoling, 2012. "Limited arbitrage between equity and credit markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 542-564.
    21. Chen, Xiao & Huang, Bihong & Ye, Dezhu, 2018. "The role of punctuation in P2P lending: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 634-643.
    22. Sumit Agarwal & Yeow Hwee Chua, 2020. "FinTech and household finance: a review of the empirical literature," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(4), pages 361-376, May.
    23. John R. Graham & Alok Kumar, 2006. "Do Dividend Clienteles Exist? Evidence on Dividend Preferences of Retail Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1305-1336, June.
    24. Xuchen Lin & Xiaolong Li & Zhong Zheng, 2017. "Evaluating borrower’s default risk in peer-to-peer lending: evidence from a lending platform in China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(35), pages 3538-3545, July.
    25. Sumit Agarwal & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Chunlin Liu, 2010. "The Importance of Adverse Selection in the Credit Card Market: Evidence from Randomized Trials of Credit Card Solicitations," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 743-754, June.
    26. repec:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:418-440 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Sumit Agarwal & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Chunlin Liu, 2010. "The Importance of Adverse Selection in the Credit Card Market: Evidence from Randomized Trials of Credit Card Solicitations," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 743-754, June.
    28. Daniel Dorn & Paul Sengmueller, 2009. "Trading as Entertainment?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(4), pages 591-603, April.
    29. Shefrin, Hersh & Statman, Meir, 1985. "The Disposition to Sell Winners Too Early and Ride Losers Too Long: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 777-790, July.
    30. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1986. "Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 251-278, October.
    31. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto, 2005. "Modeling internal commitment mechanisms and self-control: A neuroeconomics approach to consumption-saving decisions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 460-492, August.
    32. Huaili Lyu & Conghui Yang, 2019. "Regulatory Capital Constraint and Its Effects on Price Discrimination and Default Risk: Evidence from China’s Bond Market," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 584-612, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tian, Geran & Wu, Weixing, 2023. "Big data pricing in marketplace lending and price discrimination against repeat borrowers: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raj Aggarwal, 2004. "Persistent Puzzles in International Finance and Economics," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 35(3), pages 241-250.
    2. Bjarne Florentsen & Ulf Nielsson & Peter Raahauge & Jesper Rangvid, 2022. "How Important is Affiliation Between Mutual Funds and Distributors for Fund Flows? [Is unbiased financial advice to retail investors sufficient? Answers from a large field study]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(4), pages 971-1009.
    3. Francesco D'Acunto & Nagpurnanand Prabhala & Alberto G. Rossi, 2018. "The Promises and Pitfalls of Robo-advising," CESifo Working Paper Series 6907, CESifo.
    4. Lucchesi, Eduardo Pozzi & Yoshinaga, Claudia Emiko & Castro, Francisco Henrique Figueiredo de, 2015. "Efeito disposição entre gestores brasileiros de fundos de ações," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 55(1), January.
    5. Christopher P. Clifford & William C. Gerken, 2021. "Property Rights to Client Relationships and Financial Advisor Incentives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(5), pages 2409-2445, October.
    6. Mugerman, Yevgeny & Sade, Orly & Winter, Eyal, 2020. "Out-of-pocket vs. out-of-investment in financial advisory fees: Evidence from the lab," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Guiso, Luigi & Pozzi, Andrea & Tsoy, Anton & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Mistrulli, Paolo Emilio, 2022. "The cost of steering in financial markets: Evidence from the mortgage market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1209-1226.
    8. Baller, Stefanie & Entrop, Oliver & Schober, Alexander & Wilkens, Marco, 2017. "What drives performance in the speculative market of short-term exchange-traded retail products?," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Betriebswirtschaftliche Reihe B-26-17, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    9. David K. Levine & Drew Fudenberg, 2006. "A Dual-Self Model of Impulse Control," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1449-1476, December.
    10. Cruciani, Caterina & Gardenal, Gloria & Rigoni, Ugo, 2021. "Trust-formation processes in financial advisors: A structural equation model," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 185-199.
    11. Christian D. Schade & Avichai Snir, 2020. "A lab test on the decision not to decide," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 13(3), pages 1253-1291, November.
    12. Lucks, Konstantin, 2016. "The Impact of Self-Control on Investment Decisions," MPRA Paper 73099, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Suting Hong & Robert M. Hunt & Konstantinos Serfes, 2023. "Dynamic Pricing of Credit Cards and the Effects of Regulation," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 81-131, August.
    14. Chalmers, John & Reuter, Jonathan, 2020. "Is conflicted investment advice better than no advice?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 366-387.
    15. David Hirshleife, 2015. "Behavioral Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 133-159, December.
    16. de Bruin, Boudewijn & Cherednychenko, Olha & Hermes, Niels & Kramer, Marc & Meyer, Marco, 2024. "Demand for financial advice: Evidence from a randomized choice experiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    17. Hermansson, Cecilia & Jonsson, Sara & Liu, Lu, 2022. "The medium is the message: Learning channels, financial literacy, and stock market participation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Koch, Alexander K. & Nafziger, Julia, 2009. "Commitment to Self-Rewards," IZA Discussion Papers 4049, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Gathergood, John, 2012. "Self-control, financial literacy and consumer over-indebtedness," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 590-602.
    20. Bräuer, Konstantin & Hackethal, Andreas & Hanspal, Tobin, 2020. "Consuming dividends," SAFE Working Paper Series 280, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit arbitrage; Retail investors; Individual investors; Investor sophistication; Peer-to-peer lending;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G4 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance
    • G50 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - General

    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:pacfin:v:67:y:2021:i:c:s0927538x21000512. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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/pacfin .

    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.