Does bank relationship matter for a firm`s investment and financial constraints? The case of Taiwan

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of a bank relationship on reducing a firm`s financial asymmetric information in an investment function. A bank relationship is proxied by the number of banks that a firm engages for its borrowing activities. A bank relationship is further divided into two regimes, i.e., a strong and a weak bank relationship regime, where the former is defined as one with smaller number of loan related-bank, and the latter is one with a greater number. It is expected that a strong bank relationship reduces the asymmetric information, i.e., investment cash-flow sensitivity here. Based on the examination of unique Taiwanese bank transaction data, our results show that investment is less sensitive to cash flow when a firm has a strong bank relationship. This implies that the firm holds less cash flow in hand for future investment expenditures. By contrast, when a firm has a weak bank relationship, the investment is sensitive to cash-flow. Our results are robust regardless if the bank relationship is proxied by either the loan amount or loan duration.