The Impact of Information Asymmetry and Client Credit on Lending Performance - Taiwan’s Evidence

Using panel data from Taiwan, this paper examines the impact of information asymmetry and client credit on lending performance. Banks without huge losses from bad debts and from credit card lending are categorized as high lending performance banks, whereas banks with heavy losses from bad debts and from credit card lending are categorized as low lending performance banks. Firms are also divided into micro and small businesses (MSBs) and medium and large businesses (MLBs). Logit regression is used to identify the determinants of lending performance, including the levels of information asymmetry and client credit records. The empirical results show that: (1) MLBs with good information transparency tend to establish relationships with banks that are characterized by huge losses from bad debts and from credit card lending. (2) Small foreign firms, as well as MLBs with high profitability, cash and R&D expenditure ratios prefer having relationships with banks with good lending performance and low credit risk. (3) MLBs and MSBs with poor credit records prefer having relationships with banks that have good lending performance and low credit risk.