Loan Commitments and Private Firms

22 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2004

See all articles by Sumit Agarwal

Sumit Agarwal

National University of Singapore

Souphala Chomsisengphet

Government of the United States of America - Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

John C. Driscoll

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Date Written: April 2004

Abstract

Bank lending is an important source of funding for firms. Most loans are in the form of credit lines. Empirical studies of line demand have been complicated by their use of data on publicly traded firms, which have a wide menu of financing options. We avoid this problem by using a unique proprietary data set from a large financial institution of loan commitments made to 712 privately-held firms. We test Martin and Santomero's (1997) model, in which lines give firms the speed and flexibility to pursue investment opportunities. Our findings are consistent with their predictions. Firms facing higher rates and fees have smaller credit lines. Firms with higher growth commit to larger lines of credit and have a higher rate of line utilization. Firms experiencing more uncertainty in their funding needs commit to smaller credit lines. Almost all firms convert unused credit line portions into spot loans and take out new lines.

Keywords: Bank loan commitment; credit lines, private firms

JEL Classification: G21, G31, E44

Suggested Citation

Agarwal, Sumit and Chomsisengphet, Souphala and Driscoll, John C., Loan Commitments and Private Firms (April 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=593862 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.593862

Sumit Agarwal

National University of Singapore ( email )

15 Kent Ridge Drive
Singapore, 117592
Singapore
8118 9025 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.ushakrisna.com

Souphala Chomsisengphet

Government of the United States of America - Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) ( email )

400 7th Street SW
Washington, DC 20219
United States

John C. Driscoll (Contact Author)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20551
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/john-c-driscoll.htm

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