Counteroffers and Price Discrimination in Mortgage Lending
利用挪威专有微观数据，研究银行如何利用内部信息对现有客户的竞争性报价进行还价，发现现有客户比新客户多支付约20个基点，并探讨新法规和数字化如何缩小这一利率差异。
• We analyze price discrimination and switching in the residential mortgage market. • We use proprietary micro data from Norway. • We find that a bank employs internal information to counter a competing offer. • Current clients pay approximately 20 basis points more than new customers. • New regulations and digitalization can reduce the rate differential. This study analyzes price discrimination and household switching in the residential mortgage market. Using a unique proprietary micro dataset from Norway, we examine the factors that influence a bank’s choice to counter an offer from a competing bank and the difference between the loan rate paid by current clients when receiving a competing offer from another bank and the concurrent best rate offered to new customers by the current bank. The estimates show that a bank employs internal information to decide how to counter a competing offer and that current clients pay approximately 20 basis points more than new customers. We surmise that new regulations and digitalization enhance transparency and can reduce the rate differential. However, introducing new banking products and changes in the timing of rate differentiation —from immediate upfront to gradually over time —may be used to maintain a constant rate differential.