99,9% av Sveriges företag är SMEs (små och medelstora företag), och de små företagen är viktiga bland annat för att hålla arbetslösheten nere. Trots det minskar antalet krediter till dessa företag. De fysiska bankkontoren försvinner, framför allt i mindre städer och orter, samtidigt som användningen av digitala tjänster ökar. I medierna riktas kritik mot bankerna och många menar att bankerna bara bryr sig om storstadsregionerna. Problemet är alltså att antalet bankkontor minskar, och detta gör att bankpersonal och kunder får minskade möjligheter att mötas i det fysiska rummet. Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på hur relationen mellan banker och kunder i segmentet SMEs i mindre städer kan påverkas av möjligheten till kontakt i det fysiska rummet.Tidigare studier visar att det är fördelaktigt för företagskunder, särskilt SMEs, att ha en god relation till sin bank. Då ökar sannolikheten att få krediter beviljade samt att få bättre anpassade tjänster och finansiella produkter. En tidigare studie om bankkunder i Hong Kong visade att de är illojala mot sina banker, och att kostnaden att byta bank är liten jämfört med att “stå ut” med dålig service.För att nå syftet upprättades sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med personal från banker i mindre städer och orter, samt tre av deras företagskunder i SME-segmentet. Dessa intervjuer analyserades med hjälp av teorier om relationer och vad som gör kunder nöjda och i förlängningen lojala. Vi kom då fram till, i enlighet med teorin, att personlig kontakt verkar göra att kundnöjdheten och därmed också kundlojaliteten ökar. Personlig kontakt är viktig både för relationsbyggande och vid kreditbedömning, särskilt i segmentet SMEs eftersom det ofta saknas underlag för att göra en säker kvantitativ bedömning. Intervjusvaren tyder på att de företagskunder som intervjuats generellt, i motsats till den tidigare studien om lojalitet, är mycket lojala, särskilt i mer glesbefolkade områden där det finns få banker med kontor i närheten. I områden med fler alternativ ser bankpersonalen något oftare att kunder byter bank. Några av bankerna där vi intervjuat personal är just nu mitt i en förändring då bankkontor ska eller har stängts ner, vilket tyder på att antalet bankkontor fortsätter att minska. Detta trots att både bankpersonalen och de företagskunder vi intervjuat anser att bankkontoren är viktiga och att lokal närvaro och lokalkännedom bidrar till positiva synergieffekter för företagskunderna.I framtiden skulle vi gärna se en bredare studie av relationen ur företagens synvinkel. Det vore intressant med en studie som mer ingående ser på hur stort behov företag har generellt av bankkontor och kontakt med bankpersonal i det fysiska rummet. / 99,9% of all companies in Sweden are SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises), and these smaller companies are important for the employment rate. Despite this the number of credits for SMEs is decreasing. The bank branches are being closed down, especially in smaller cities, and meanwhile the usage of digital banking services is increasing. There have been several media articles discussing this matter and many believe that the banks only care about the more densely populated urban regions. The problem is that the number of bank branches is decreasing, and this means that the bank personnel and its customers have smaller chances of meeting in person. In this thesis we have studied the relationship between banks and their customers in the SME segment and how it can be affected by the opportunity for contact in person.Earlier studies show that it is beneficial for bank customers, especially SMEs, to have a good relationship with their bank. It increases the possibility for bank credits and for better service. An earlier study regarding bank customers in Hong Kong shows that they are generally illoyal to their banks, and that the cost of changing banks is small compared to receiving bad service.We performed seven semi-structured interviews with bank personnel from smaller cities, and three interviews with their SME customers. These interviews were analyzed with theories regarding relationships, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. We found that, just like in the theories, personal contact seems to increase customer satisfaction, which also means that the customer loyalty increases. Personal contact is important both for building a relationship and increases the possibility to yield bank credits, especially in the SME segment, because it is difficult to find enough financial information to calculate a good credit score for companies in the segment. The answers from the interviews show that SMEs are generally very loyal to their banks, especially in more rural areas, where there are few banks with local bank branches. In areas with more alternatives the bank personnel can see that customers change banks more often. Some of the banks where we have interviewed personnel are currently closing down or have recently closed down bank branches. This suggests that the number of branches is still decreasing, despite the fact that both the bank personnel and the SMEs we have interviewed believe that the bank branches are important and that local presence and local knowledge create synergy effects for businesses.In the future we would like to see a broader study of the relationship from the businesses’ viewpoint. It would be interesting to study more in detail how important the bank branches, and contact with bank personnel in person, is to businesses in general.

This study investigates the impact of technological advancement in community bank lending, more specifically, how online financial product and service offerings affect community banks' performance. Community banks, institutions with assets under $1 billion are praised as relationship banking specialists, are important source of credit to individuals and businesses. Their productive performance is highly beneficial for the economic development of the communities and customers that they serve, yet community banks' competitive power against large banks has become increasingly more challenging. Technological advancements radically shift all production and service based industries, including the banking industry and its institutions' offerings. The increasing use of online products and services provides convenience for bank customers, and eventually creates more demand, and boosts up the industry competition. Regarding the impact of technological advancements in the banking industry and the specific position that community banks carries, the question arises of "How does a changing technological landscape affect community banks' performance?". This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how these institutions can better utilize their limited resources to improve their performances.

中小企業一直在臺灣的經濟發展上扮演著重要的角色，然而因為本身營運規模較小，多數無法承擔如同大型企業般的財務資訊揭露品質。銀行需透過財務報表以外的其他方式，來對中小企業信用狀況進行評估，「關係放款」便是其中一項。銀行可以藉由與中小企業長期的接觸，來瞭解中小企業的財務狀況。 但依據國外文獻顯示，銀行規模會對中小企業「關係放款」產生影響。銀行規模越大，因為資訊不對稱所產生的「代理問題」會越嚴重，將不利於中小企業關係放款的進行。面對近期的銀行合併風潮，遂有學者擔心中小企業融資會因此波銀行合併後，銀行規模變大，進而降低中小企業的放款。一國的金融環境，實會對其經濟發展產生深遠的影響，尤其是中小企業，受限於融資管道有限，對金融機構的依賴，相較於大型企業為深。本文透過對國外文獻回顧並比對國內目前狀況，並利用金融監督管理委員會銀行局「金融業務統計輯要」的各銀行中小企業放款資料，透過實證的方式， 發現銀行規模越大，的確會對中小企業融資產生負面的影響，但卻不能就此推論合併後銀行會降低中小企業的放款數量。蓋因銀行合併的影響有許多層面，規模擴大只是其中之一。合併之後會更容易形成寡佔的市場狀況，反而更有利於銀行進行關係放款。 然而由於本國銀行家數相對國外少了許多，各家銀行稍有差異，對實證結果影響頗大。尤其是傳統所謂的官股銀行與中小企業銀行，其帶有政策性色彩的放款方式與官股銀行的規模相對較大。在過去，在中小企業放款上佔有相當大的比重。將來官股銀行民營化與中小企業銀行改制為商業銀行的影響下，相較於銀行合併或許更需值得我們長期注意與觀察。

La tesi analizza come le relazioni tra banche e imprese influenzino la capacità di aziende in difficoltà di rinegoziare il loro debito. Dopo una rassegna della teoria, con particolare attenzione ai fallimenti di mercato che ostacolano la rinegoziazione (primo paper), la tesi approfondisce i problemi di coordinamento tra più banche in presenza di multiaffidamento (secondo paper). Un modello a giochi ripetuti viene utilizzato per descrivere la situazione di banche che si incontrano ripetutamente per discutere su numerose imprese in difficoltà. In tale contesto, il coordinamento è raggiunto seguendo una classica ,'trigger strategy', che prevede la punizione dei comportamenti opportunistici. All’aumentare del numero di banche, altre strategie possono essere utilizzate, come l’esclusione dei creditori considerati inaffidabili (‘ostracismo’), migliorando così la probabilità di cooperare. L’ultimo paper affronta questi temi empiricamente: le banche ristrutturano più facilmente aziende il cui debito è prevalentemente di origine bancaria, più grandi e con una migliore situazione economica e finanziaria prima della crisi. Al crescere del numero di banche la probabilità di ristrutturare e il credito concesso dopo la crisi aumentano fino ad una soglia, stimata tra tre e quattro banche, oltre la quale trovare un accordo diventa più difficile. Questo risultato può aiutare a spiegare la diffusione del multiaffidamento. / The thesis analyses how bank-firm relationships affect firms facing financial distress and their capability to renegotiate outstanding debt. The first paper reviews the theoretical contributions on this process and the market failures that hinder it. The second paper studies coordination problems among multiple banks. Banks have more than one distressed firm to face and, therefore, they come across repeatedly and behave strategically. This setting is modelled as a repeated game, wherein coordination is improved by following a classical trigger strategy, which threatens a punishment in case of free riding behaviours. As the number of lending banks increases, different strategies can be adopted, such as ostracism against untrustworthy players, thus improving the likelihood of cooperation. The last paper analyses empirically the issue: banks tend to restructure those firms they are more involved in, larger and with a better economic and financial situation before the distress event. A higher number of banks and more dispersed debt increase the restructuring probability, the new credit granted after the distress event and the survival probability, up to a threshold estimated between three and four banks, beyond which reaching an agreement becomes harder. This result gives a new rationale to multiple banking relations.

Cette thèse contient trois études sur le fonctionnement des banques.<p>Le premier Chapitre analyse empiriquement comment la capacité d’offrir des emprunts à long terme est influencée par la dimension des intermédiaires financiers.<p>Le deuxième Chapitre analyse, avec un model théorique caractérisé par la présence de soft-budget constraint, ratchet effect et short-termism, comment la pression compétitive influence la capacité des banque de financer le firmes ayant des projets de bonne qualité.<p>Le troisième Chapitre examine, avec un model théorique du type moral hazard common agency, le conflits d'intérêts des banques universelles.<p><p>Financial intermediaries are recognized to promote the efficiency of resource allocation by mitigating problems of incentives, asymmetric information and contract incompleteness. The role played by financial intermediaries is considered so crucial that these institutions have received all over the world the greatest attention of regulators.<p>Across and within banking sectors it is possible to observe a wide variety of intermediaries. Banks may differ in their size, market power and degree of specialization. This variety raises interesting questions about the features of a well functioning banking sector. These questions have inspired an important body of economic literature which, however, is still inconclusive in many aspects. This dissertation includes three studies intending to contribute in this direction.<p>Chapter 1 will empirically study the willingness of smaller and larger lenders to grant long-term loans which, as credit to SME's, constitute an opaque segment of the credit market. Chapter 2 analyzes, with a theoretical model, the effects of competition on the efficiency of the banking sector when this is characterized by dynamic commitment issues which brings to excessive refinancing of bad quality investments (so called soft-budget constraint) or excessive termination of good ones (ratchet effect and short-termism). Chapter 3 presents a model to investigate to what extent the distortions posed by conflicts of interest in universal banks can be addressed through the provision of appropriate incentive schemes by the different categories of clients. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Tidigare studier har identifierat två olika typer av information som kreditgivarna tar del av för att avgöra om kredittagaren är kapabel att betala sina skulder och fullfölja sina förpliktelser, transaktionsorienterad och relationsorienterad information (Rad et al., 2013; Gray et al., 2006). Dessa två huvudgrupper av information delas upp i olika bedömningsgrunder somSvensson (2003) presenterar i en analysmodell som används som grund för denna studies föreställningsram. Kreditbedömningen baseras till stor del på den finansiella informationen som ingår i den transaktionsorienterade informationen och som finns att tillgå i årsredovisningen. Årsredovisningen är dock en statisk presentation av företaget (Svensson, 2003) och bör därför kompletteras med ytterligare information.Kreditvärdighetsbedömningen sker utifrån företagets fortlevnad, företagets säkerheter och dess framtida värde, där säkerheter är tillgångar ställda som garantier under kredittiden. Dessa ställda säkerheter får ett säkrare värde om företaget har revisor. Med lagändringen som trädde i kraft i november 2010, som resulterade i en avreglering för revisionsplikten för mindre bolag i Sverige, har drygt 40 % av dagens ca 400 000 aktiebolag ingen revisor (Spängs, 2014).Syftet med uppsatsen var att utvärdera och beskriva vilken betydelse hård och mjuk information har för institutionella kreditgivare vid kreditbedömning av små och medelstora företag i Sverige. Vidare var syftet att utvärdera av vilken vikt det är att den transaktionsorienterade informationen är kvalitetssäkrad genom revision. För att uppfylla syftet med studien har en kvantitativ metod med deduktiv ansats använts, där primärdatainsamlats med hjälp av en webbaserad enkät riktad till företagsrådgivare inom bankväsendet som ligger till grund för empirin i denna studie. Det empiriska materialet har sedan analyserats mot sekundärdata som insamlats från vetenskapliga artiklar, litteratur och svenska lagar.Resultatet visar att kreditbedömningen av små och medelstora företag utifrån studiens urval styrker tidigare studier inom området och resultatet tyder på att revision för att kvalitetssäkra den finansiella informationen inte har avgörande roll för kreditbedömningen. Relationsorienterad information används vid kreditbedömning, men nyttjas inte i samma utsträckning som den transaktionsorienterade. (Rad et al., 2013; Gómez-Guillamón, 2003) / Previous studies have identified two different types of information that lenders uses to decide if the borrower is able to pay its debts and fulfil their obligations, transaction-oriented and relationship-oriented information (Rad et al., 2013; Gray et al., 2006). These two main groups of information is divided into different assessment bases, Svensson (2003) presents ananalysis model that is used as the base for this study. Credit assessment is based on the financial information included in the transactional information that is available in the annual report. The annual report is, according to Svensson (2003), a static presentation of the company and should therefore be supplemented with additional information.Creditworthiness is based on the chance of going concern, the company's assets and its future value, where the collateral assets are pledged as guarantees during the credit period. These collateral assets get a more curtain value by the company's auditor. With the amendment which came into force in November 2010, which resulted in a settlement of audit requirementfor smaller companies in Sweden, has just over 40% of today's 400 000 incorporated companies no auditor (Spängs, 2014).The purpose of this paper was to evaluate and describe the significance that accountant information and relations has for institutional lenders in credit rating of SME’s in Sweden. A further purpose was to evaluate the importance of the assurance that the auditing of the transactional information provides. To fulfil the purpose of the study a quantitative method of deductive approach was used, where primary data collected through a web-based surveyaimed at business advisers within the banking system as the basis for empirical data in this study. The empirical data were then analyzed against secondary data collected from scientific articles, literature and Swedish laws.The result shows that the credit assessment of SME’s based on the study sample, evidence of previous studies in the subject and the results indicate that the auditing in ensuring the quality of the financial information not is crucial in the credit assessment. Relationship-oriented information is also used in the credit rating, but is not utilized to the extent as the transactionoriented information. (Rad et al., 2013; Gómez-Guillamón, 2003)