Do foreign banks intensify borrower discouragement? The role of developed European institutions in ameliorating SME financing constraints
研究分析了25个欧洲国家的中小企业数据，发现外资银行在资产占比超过34%时会加剧融资约束，但高收入、低成本的债务执行机制和私人征信机构能缓解这种效应。
The growing activity of foreign banks in most European countries may increase financing constraints by intensifying the problem of borrower discouragement. We provide new evidence of this association by analysing a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in 25 developed and developing European countries. We find that financing constraints increase with foreign banks for those SMEs operating in countries where the share of banking assets owned by foreign banks is above 34%. Our results also show that borrower discouragement may decrease, or increase less, with the presence of foreign banks for SMEs operating in countries with high income, with cheap debt enforcement mechanisms, or having a private bureau that provides credit information about firms and individuals. These results suggest that unification towards better institutions needs to occur in Europe before the banking union progresses to a more open banking system.