Search Results
Journal Article
Changes in Twelfth District local banking market structure during a period of industry consolidation
A main public policy concern regarding the massive consolidation of the banking industry between 1984 and 2003 is the consolidation's potential effect on competition in local banking markets. Examining this period for the Twelfth Federal Reserve District, I find, on the whole, moderate increases in concentration in urban markets and decreases in concentration in rural markets, although a number of local markets have shown large increases in concentration to high levels. However, consistent with antitrust enforcement and competition, I find negative and highly statistically significant ...
Monograph
CRA lending during the subprime meltdown
Journal Article
Out-of-market small business loans
This Letter compares small business loans made by banks inside and outside of a local market area and discusses how the mix might affect the measurement of the degree of competition among lenders.
Journal Article
1989 Fall Academic Conference
Working Paper
Is mortgage lending by savings associations special?
In this paper, we investigate whether elimination of the savings association charter might reduce lending to nontraditional mortgage borrowers. We present a theoretical model of lender portfolio choice, in which nontraditional lenders have some market power and traditional lenders are price-takers in the mortgage market. The comparative statics indicate differences between nontraditional and traditional lenders in terms of their asset allocation responses to changes in borrower income and house prices. Empirical tests indicate the absence of such differences between savings associations and ...
Journal Article
The geographic scope of small business lending: evidence from the San Francisco market
Historically, small businesses have tended to turn to local lenders for credit. In recent years, however, technological advances in processing information and assessing credit risk have raised the potential for loosening the geographic ties between small business borrowers and lenders. This Economic Letter discusses factors affecting the geographic scope of markets for small business credit and uses data available for the San Francisco Bay Area to examine the extent to which small businesses rely on local lenders, how this reliance has changed over time, and the implications of any changes ...
Journal Article
Recent trends in small business lending
Although bank small business loan portfolios continue to shrink, there are hints of possible stabilization. Among smaller banks, small business lending that is not backed by commercial real estate looks slightly healthier than small business lending that is secured by commercial property. Meanwhile, small commercial and industrial loans at larger banks are showing clear signs of a turnaround. Evidence from the 2001 recession as well as loan performance data suggest that small commercial and industrial loans at smaller banks may not be far behind.
Working Paper
Lending in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in California: the performance of CRA lending during the subprime meltdown
The current scale of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures - particularly in the subprime market - has sparked a renewed debate over the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the regulations governing home mortgage lending. On one side, detractors argue that the CRA helped to precipitate the current crisis by encouraging lending in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods (Walker 2008). On the other side, advocates of the CRA point to a number of reasons why the regulation shouldn?t be blamed for the current subprime crisis. ; What has been missing in this debate has been an empirical ...
Working Paper
Did Consumers Want Less Debt? Consumer Credit Demand Versus Supply in the Wake of the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis
We explore the sources of household balance sheet adjustment following the collapse of the housing market in 2006. First, we use microdata from the Federal Reserve Board?s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey to document that banks cumulatively tightened consumer lending standards more in counties that experienced a house price boom in the mid-2000s than in nonboom counties. We then use the idea that renters, unlike homeowners, did not experience an adverse wealth shock when the housing market collapsed to examine the relative importance of two explanations for the observed deleveraging and the ...
Conference Paper
Interstate banking and competition