Collateral in lending relationships. A study on European SMEs microdata

This work empirically investigates the role played by collateralizable assets in helping SMEs to access bank credit, assuming that such a role might be affected by the (balancing between) benefits and costs related to enduring lending relationships. Using an exclusive dataset on European firms, we find that longer lending relationships amplify the beneficial effect of collateral on SMEs’ financing, suggesting that the advantages of longer bank-firm ties might prevail over the disadvantages. This finding holds for both more and less informationally transparent firms, as well as at the outset of the last financial crisis. Combined to the positive influence that the duration of bank relations seems to exert per se, our results provide (further) evidence in support of the valuable role of close lending relationships for SMEs’ financing.