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Strong lending relationships between banks and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in the bank-based financial system of Germany. So far, they have been mainly described by the notion of an housebank and transactional features of long-term bank-customer relationships. The present paper takes a new look by considering also interactional variables which try to measure social relations between loan officer and firm manager. We find that these variables do affect loan pricing, but that their influence varies according to firm age and housebank status.

Strong lending relationships between banks and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in the bank-based financial system of Germany. So far, they have been mainly described by the notion of an housebank and transactional features of long-term bank-customer relationships. The present paper takes a new look by considering also interactional variables which try to measure social relations between loan officer and firm manager. We find that these variables do affect loan pricing, but that their influence varies according to firm age and housebank status.

Purpose– The aim of the paper is to analyse female and male loan officers' (LOs) risk aversion as they assess different types of small- and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) loan applications.Design/methodology/approach– The data were gathered from a sample of 75 Swedish LOs, using the repertory grid technique and related questions. The data were analysed statistically.Findings– The findings demonstrate that female LOs focus more on collateral (used as a proxy for risk aversion) in their evaluations of first-time loan applications than male LOs. However, the findings also suggest that there are no significant differences between the two groups as far as risk aversion when they evaluate additional loan applications. The other variables controlled for (age, tenure, insight, education, and location) did not significantly affect the LOs' risk aversion.Research limitations/implications– The study might have benefited from the use of complementary data collection approaches. Access to actual assessment and decision-making procedures could have increased the understanding of female and male LOs' attitudes toward risk.Practical implications– The findings suggest that by the use of female-male LO teams, banks may achieve more balanced assessments of SMEs' loan applications.Originality/value– To the authors' knowledge, the literature has not explicitly addressed risk aversion among female and male LOs with respect to different types of bank loans. Moreover, the authors investigated risk aversion in the context of standardised assessments procedures used to reduce exposure to credit risk.

Using a unique and comprehensive data set on the two largest economies of the Eurozone - France and Germany - this paper first proceeds to a computation of the Gordy formula relaxing the ad hoc sizedependent constraints of the Basel formulas. Our study contributes to Article 501 of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) requesting analysis of the consistency of own funds requirements with the riskiness of SME. In both the French and the German sample, results suggest that the relative differences between the capital requirements for large corporates and those for SME (in other words the capital relief for SME) are lower in the Basel III framework than implied by empirically estimated asset correlations. Results show that the SME Supporting Factor in the CRR/CRD IV is able to compensate the difference between estimated and CRR/CRD IV capital requirements for loans in the corporate portfolio. However, no empirical evidence is found supporting the € 1.5 mln SME threshold currently included in Article 501 (CRR).

Our paper addresses firm size as a driver of systematic credit risk in loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Key contributions are the use of a unique data set of SME lending by over 400 German banks and relating systematic risk to the size dependence of regulatory capital requirements. What sets our sample apart is its comprehensive coverage of the particularly rich and well developed credit market for SMEs in Germany. We estimate asset correlations as the key measure of systematic risk from historical default rates. Our results suggest that systematic risk tends to increase with firm size, conditional on the respective rating category. We also compare the size of this effect with the capital relief that has been granted in Basel II for SMEs relative to large firms. For SME loans in the corporate portfolio of the Internal Ratings-Based Approach and also for SME loans treated under the revised standardized approach of Basel II, our asset correlation estimates suggest a significantly larger relative difference from large firms than reflected in the regulatory capital requirements.