The financial crisis of 2008 had systemic implications in the financial services industry spilling over into sectors such as the leverage loan market. I use regression analysis between two data sets (before and after the crisis) to understand the determinants of loan spreads for corporate loans of $100 million and larger, particularly the determinants which constitute bank effects, of the lead lending bank in the loan. I find that the effect of bank monitoring power is not a significant determinant of loan spreads, bank risk was significant before the crisis but not after, and bank size is significant both before and after. There is an inverse relationship between bank size and loan spread such that firms looking to take out a loan would receive a lower spread by mandating a larger bank as the lead arranger, and there is no longer a premium for mandating lead banks with less risk.

This paper proposes that managerial incentive compensation affects the firm choice between public and bank debt. To motivate the case I analyze a simple model with complete and perfect information that implies a positive relation between managers’ incentive compensation and preference toward bank debt. Using firm-level data over the period 1992-2005, I empirically examine the relation between managerial incentives and financing decisions. Specifically, I examine whether managers whose compensation is tied to firm performance choose bank over public debt as a commitment mechanism to reduce the cost of debt. Consistent with a monitoring role of banks, I find that the probability of choosing bank over public debt is positively related to the level of incentive compensation. Further, I find that public lenders price the incentive alignment between manager and shareholders by increasing the cost of debt, while the overall cost of bank loan does not depend on the manager’s incentive compensation. Finally, I find that banks are more likely to include a collateral provision in the debt contract if the manager’s compensation is tied to firm performance.

Background: The relevance of sustainability has increased drastically during the recent years which has brought new regulations and guidelines by Swedish banks as well as governments. Therefore, the implementation of ESG has become more important to evolve the sustainable transition. One of the reasons for the implementation is because it has been demonstrated to bring financial benefits for both banks and companies.  Research Problem: Despite the increasing focus on the implementation of ESG, the existing research is mostly focused on companies and how it affects their performance. There was a lack of research regarding how Swedish banks integrate ESG in their corporate credit valuation. Which enlightens a gap in the research that requires additional focus.  Research Purpose: This study aims to investigate Swedish banks’ ESG considerations in credit valuation for corporate loans.  Research Questions:  -  How do Swedish banks integrate environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) into their credit valuation process for corporate lending?  -  How does ESG affect credit granting and cost of debt?  Research Method: This study uses a descriptive research design with exploratory insights to examine ESG integration in Swedish banks and its effect on credit granting and cost of debt. Qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews with an abductive approach is utilized to delve into the subject.  Conclusion: The findings show the integration of ESG factors within the credit valuation process of Swedish banks. Stakeholder engagement and regulatory compliance work as major drivers for the implementation of ESG. Considerations regarding ESG are found to be consistently present in credit valuation, as primary or secondary determinants, evidenced by exclusion lists and risk analyses. Moreover, relationship lending contributes to banks actively guiding corporations towards sustainability. While a direct link between ESG performance and cost of debt is not clear, green loans offer reduced spreads for sustainable investments. The indirect relation between ESG performance and firm performance can foster reduced spreads. Overall, Swedish banks apply ESG principles widely alongside traditional credit assessment techniques.

Project finance has become a vital financing vehicle for undertaking capital-intensive and infrastructure investments. In 2017 alone, the value of deals signed using project finance was estimated at approximately $229 billion. Despite its increasing importance, little is known regarding the impact of project-level, and country characteristics on the loan terms. This thesis proceeds in examining these determinants along three empirical essays. The first essay (Chapter 3) focuses on how domestic lead arrangers certification (in emerging markets) impact the pricing of project finance loans. Using a sample 1270 project finance loan tranches signed between 1998 and 2011, and worth over $300 billion, the chapter posits that domestic lead arrangers certification reduce search and information cost, which in turn, reduces the financing cost. The results, after controlling for endogeneity of certification decision, indicate a reduction of 47 basis points in the spread offered on PF loans. The magnitude of this reduction differs across industries, geographic region, and income classification of the project countries. The second essay (Chapter 4) examines the relationship between PF contractual structures and loan outcomes, using a sample of 5872 project finance loan tranches signed between 1998 and 2013, and worth approximately $1.2 trillion. The chapter hypothesises that (i) non financial contracts (NFCs) (that is, contracts used to manage the various project functions), reduces overall project risk, (ii) the involvement of project sponsors as key counterparties to the non-financial contracts is an additional signal of project s potential worth, and (iii) the effects observed in (i and ii) are stronger, if sponsor counterparties have verifiable credit ratings. After matching loan tranches with NFCs to those without, the results indicate that the use of NFCs reduce both the loan spreads and leverage ratios. This impact is higher if the sponsor counterparties are credit-rated. The results are also stronger for developing countries. The third essay examines the impact of country-level institutions on project finance loan spread and leverage ratio, using a sample of 3,362 loan tranches signed between the year 1998 - 2012. The chapter investigates whether political and legal institutions are substitutes (or complements), that is, if improvement in one absorbs the weakness of the other, and vice versa. Further, the essay examines if project finance network of contracts substitutes for these institutions. The results indicate that political and legal institutions are substitutes. Specifically, improvements in political institutions lead to a reduction in both the loan spread and leverage ratio for countries with weak legal and governance institutions. The chapter also finds that where NFCs are included in PF, the impact of political institutions on loan spread reduces. On the other hand, the impact of political institutions on leverage ratio is higher when NFCs are used. The findings from the three research chapters provide interesting insights on how lenders and sponsors create value through contract design.

本研究以2001年至2012年美國上市公司且向銀行聯貸之企業為樣本，探討企業社會責任評量表現與聯合貸款利息差額之關聯性。本研究發現企業社會責任評量總分越高，其聯貸利差越小。此外，這現象對於較依賴銀行作為資金來源的公司更加明顯。顯示企業社會責任評量表現較好之企業，能提升聲譽及形象、建立銀行之信賴、降低聯貸利息差額；若同時依賴銀行作為資金來源之企業，更能降低聯貸利息差額。另外，本研究進一步拆解企業社會責任評量總分，對組成項目進行迴歸分析，實證結果顯示，企業投入慈善活動及社區參與、僱傭平等、員工關係及權益、產品這四個正面項目，能降低聯貸利差。 / This study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility performance and syndicated loan spread. Based on a sample of companies in the US from 2001 to 2012, I find that companies with higher corporate social responsibility performance have lower syndicated loan spreads. Moreover, the decrease in loan spreads are more pronounced among bank-dependent companies. This suggests that companies with better corporate social responsibility performance can set up their enterprise image and establish bank trust, which would then reduce their cost of debt financing. Besides, by analyzing the components of corporate social responsibility indicators, I find that the reduction in loan spreads is associated with strengths in community, diversity, employee relations, and product.

Alors que le début de la crise de l'euro a relancé le débat sur l’interdépendance du risque decrédit et la relation dette bancaire-dette souveraine, l’importance du secteur réel est négligéedans l’élaboration des mesures de relance de la croissance économique dans la zone euro. Cettethèse se concentre sur ces questions au sein de la zone euro. D’abord, nous évaluons les effets«spillover» de la crise souveraine sur le coût de crédit des entreprises non financières enprésence des mesures d’austérité (Chapitre-I). Nos résultats indiquent un effet significatif de ladette publique sur le coût des prêts. En outre, en période de crise, les mesures d’austéritéimpactent significativement le coût de crédit tandis qu’avant la crise, on note une petite illustrationde la demande agrégée de Keynes. Ensuite, nous montrons que les fonctions traditionnelles desbanques, notamment celle de création de liquidité fragilisent le secteur souverain (Chapitre-II). Enparticulier, nous montrons que le risque de liquidité des banques agit comme un canal depropagation de l'incertitude vers les sociétés non financières et inversement. Enfin, nousexaminons la dynamique du risque de crédit sur la dette souveraine, les entreprises et lesbanques (Chapitre-III). Nos résultats montrent qu’il existe un risque de contagion sur les secteurset les marchés financiers de l’union monétaire. Par ailleurs, les résultats des simulations dechocs de primes de risque des pays «noyaux» de la zone euro confirment l’existence d’effetsindirects sur le reste de la zone. De plus, nous constatons un phénomène de fuite desinvestisseurs vers les valeurs refuges. / The onset of euro crisis has rekindled the policy debate regarding credit risk interdependenceamong sovereign-bank nexus. In this vein, the importance of real sector is overlooked whileformulating corrective measures for the recovery of economic growth in EMU. This thesispresents a study that examined these issues in euro zone. First, we evaluate spillover effect ofeuro crisis on borrowing cost of non-financial firms in presence of austerity measures (Chapter-I).Our results suggest significant effect especially where creditor rights protection are weak. Inaddition during recent crisis, results indicate presence of credibility channel due to austeritymeasures whereas; there is slight indication of aggregate demand channel before crisis. Second,we find traditional function of bank’s liquidity creation as a significant conduit of sovereign distressto real sector (Chapter-II). Particularly, our main finding shows that bank liquidity risk acts as aconduit which propagates uncertainty towards non-financial firms and re-channels it back torespective government. Finally, we examine cross-market credit risk dynamics among sovereignbank-firm nexus to identify presence of contagion during euro crisis period (Chapter-III). Ourresults report grave evidence of credit risk contagion across sectors and member states incorresponding financial markets in EMU. Moreover like peripheral countries, simulation results toshock in core countries risk premia strongly provide evidence of contagion towards remainingeuro zone.

近年來知名公司面臨起訴或遭到定罪的消息層出不窮，然而在公司定罪的相關研究中，多數文獻著重於探究遭受定罪之事實對公司價值的影響，較少研究聚焦於定罪事實對公司所參與之聯貸案契約條件的影響，有鑑於此，本篇文章旨在探討犯罪公司於定罪前後其聯貸借款條件之借款利率是否有顯著差異。本篇研究發現事件前後犯罪公司之借款利率差異並不顯著。當我們試以修正資料庫登錄與犯罪新聞時間差的問題後，結果顯示犯罪公司之借款利率於犯罪相關新聞發布後顯著上升，除此之外，考量交乘作用後發現犯罪公司間，犯罪罪刑為詐欺類以及受判罰金較高的犯罪公司於事件後，相較於其他犯罪公司，該類公司更傾向面臨較高的借貸成本。 / A number of well-known corporate prosecutions have been raised in recent years. Previous literature focuses more on the valuation impact of corporate convictions. Empirical evidence on how corporate convictions affect the contract terms of syndicated loan is sparse. We examine how corporate misconducts affect the pricing of bank debt after corporate convictions. We find that the difference of loan spreads between facilities initiated before and after conviction are insignificant. Taking potential lag of initial announcement time into consideration, we find significant evidence that the effect of corporate conviction is positively associated with the increases of loan spreads. Moreover, interaction terms with conviction variable show that firms with large fines or convicted of fraud-related crimes tend to face higher loan spread after convictions.