Bank Relationships and Their Effects on Firm Performance around the Asian Financial Crisis: Evidence from Taiwan

摘要

We evaluate the impact of bank relationships on firm performance for a sample of Taiwanese firms around the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We find a negative relation between the number of domestic-bank relationships and firm performance, but a positive relation between the number of foreign-bank relationships and firm performance. Firms explored new relationships with domestic banks and reduced their reliance on foreign banks during the crisis. Lending bank reputation and bank loan ratios are important factors explaining firm performance. Factors that affect banking relationships include borrowing firms' profitability, age, size, and leverage, and the primary lending bank's characteristics.