Relationship lending – empirical evidence for Germany

Relationship lending is a common practice in credit financing all over the world, particularly in Germany. On the basis of a comprehensive data set comprising information on firm-bank relationships for more than 16,000 observations, this study analyses the determinants of relationship lending in Germany. We find that small, young and R&D-intensive firms tend to choose relationship lending. Furthermore, we find that firms with a higher creditworthiness are more likely to choose a relationship lender. We find that the importance of relationship lending stayed roughly constant since the mid 90s. JEL classification: G21; G32