The impact of Internet finance on commercial banks’ risk taking: evidence from China

Background Internet finance has grown rapidly in China over the past years. Through introducing internet finance’s “reducing management cost” and “raising capital cost” effects into bank risk-taking model, this paper systematically investigates the dynamic and heterogeneous influence of internet finance on China commercial banks’ risk-taking. Methods Using internet finance index based on “text mining” and data of 36 commercial banks from 2003 to 2013, we makes an SYS-GMM test. Results The results show, firstly, the impact of internet finance on China commercial banks’ risk-taking is a “U” trend. The initial development of internet finance can help commercial banks to reduce management cost and risk-taking, but then internet finance will raise capital cost, and turn to exacerbate banks’ risk-taking. Secondly, the response of China commercial banks’ risk-taking is heterogeneous. Large commercial banks’ response is slow, while small and medium banks’ response is relatively sensitive. Conclusions The conclusion showed the complexity of the implication mechanism and functional process of how internet finance affected China commercial banks’ risk-taking.