IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedbne/y1993ijanp45-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why do banks syndicate loans?

Author

Listed:
  • Katerina Simons

Abstract

Loan syndication, where a group of banks makes a loan jointly to a single borrower, offers several benefits. Syndication allows banks to diversify, expanding their lending to broader geographic areas and industries. Second, syndication allows banks that are constrained by their capital-asset ratios to participate in loans to larger borrowers. ; Despite these benefits, loan syndication could pose additional risks for the banking system, if the originating or lead banks withhold information about the borrower from participating banks, misleading them into making loans that are riskier than they thought. This study uses data on loan syndications to test the importance of various factors that motivate the participants. Despite a significant number of problem credits among the syndicated loans studied, it finds little evidence of opportunistic behavior by the lead banks in syndications. At the same time, it finds substantial support for the importance of bank regulation, in the form of capital requirements and lending limits, to the existence of the bank syndication market.

Suggested Citation

  • Katerina Simons, 1993. "Why do banks syndicate loans?," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jan, pages 45-52.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbne:y:1993:i:jan:p:45-52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/neer/neer1993/neer193c.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mester, Loretta J., 1992. "Traditional and nontraditional banking: An information-theoretic approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 545-566, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Size, efficiency, market power, and economies of scale in the African banking sector," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Joseph P. Hughes & Loretta J. Mester, "undated". "Evidence on the Objectives of Bank Managers," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 4-94, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    3. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Testing the Quiet Life Hypothesis in the African Banking Industry," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 69-82, March.
    4. Joseph P. Hughes & Loretta J. Mester, 2008. "Efficiency in banking: theory, practice, and evidence," Working Papers 08-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    5. Robert Inklaar & J. Christina Wang, 2013. "Real Output of Bank Services: What Counts is What Banks Do, Not What They Own," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 80(317), pages 96-117, January.
    6. Simplice Asongu & Rexon Nting & Joseph Nnanna, 2020. "Market power and cost efficiency in the African banking industry," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(6), pages 1247-1264, May.
    7. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Hakkon Kim & Kwangwoo Park, 2018. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility and the Cost of Capital: International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 335-361, May.
    8. Berger, Allen N. & Demsetz, Rebecca S. & Strahan, Philip E., 1999. "The consolidation of the financial services industry: Causes, consequences, and implications for the future," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 135-194, February.
    9. Haubrich, Joseph G & Thomson, James B, 1996. "Loan Sales, Implicit Contracts, and Bank Structure," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 137-162, September.
    10. Dennis, Steven A. & Mullineaux, Donald J., 2000. "Syndicated Loans," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 404-426, October.
    11. Abdul Karim, Mastura & Hassan, M. Kabir & Hassan, Taufiq & Mohamad, Shamsher, 2014. "Capital adequacy and lending and deposit behaviors of conventional and Islamic banks," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 58-75.
    12. David T. Llewellyn, 1999. "The New Economics of Banking," SUERF Studies, SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum, number 5 edited by Morten Balling, May.
    13. Hughes, Joseph P. & Mester, Loretta J., 2013. "Who said large banks don’t experience scale economies? Evidence from a risk-return-driven cost function," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 559-585.
    14. George J. Benston, 1994. "Universal Banking," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 121-143, Summer.
    15. Simplice A. Asongu & Sara Le Roux & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2019. "Essential information sharing thresholds for reducing market power in financial access: a study of the African banking industry," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 34-50, March.
    16. Boateng, Agyenim & Asongu, Simplice & Akamavi, Raphael & Tchamyou, Vanessa, 2018. "Information asymmetry and market power in the African banking industry," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 69-83.
    17. Joseph G. Haubrich & James B. Thomson, 1994. "Loan sales: Pacific Rim trade in nontradable assets," Working Papers (Old Series) 9414, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    18. Mester, Loretta J., 1997. "Measuring efficiency at U.S. banks: Accounting for heterogeneity is important," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 230-242, April.
    19. Shaffer, Sherrill, 2004. "Patterns of competition in banking," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 287-313.
    20. Loretta J. Mester, "undated". "Efficiency of Banks in the Third Federal Reserve District," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 02-94, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank loans;

    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:fip:fedbne:y:1993:i:jan:p:45-52. 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 Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    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.