Going the Extra Mile: Distant Lending and Credit Cycles

The average distance of U.S. banks from their small corporate borrowers increased before the global nancial crisis, especially for banks in competitive counties. Small distant loans are harder to make, so loan quality deteriorated. Surprisingly, such lending intensied as the Fed raised interest全球金融危机爆发前，美国各家银行与其小型企业借款人之间的平均地理距离有所增加，尤其是位于竞争激烈县域内的银行。距离较远的小额企业贷款审批难度更高，因此贷款质量随之恶化。令人意外的是，随着美联储（Fed）上调利率，此类放贷行为反而有所增强。