Multiple banking relationships: the role of firm connectedness

This paper sheds light on the role of firm social connectedness in multiple banking relationships, controlling for other firm-level determinants. Using a large sample of Italian manufacturing firms, we develop novel text-based measures of firm connectedness and multiple banking relationships. We measure firm connectedness by exploiting information on the number of links that a non-financial firm has with any other non-financial firm through individuals who hold a position (such as shareholder, administrator, and technical or administrative employee) in both firms. The paper finds empirical evidence that firm connectedness is positively associated with the number of banks lending to the firm. This effect is stronger for younger, smaller, and more indebted firms, suggesting that firm connectedness favors the diffusion of soft information and ultimately their access to multiple sources of credit by reducing negotiation and transaction costs. Connectedness, on the other hand, does not seem to reduce firms' incentives to increase the number of lenders in order to minimize hold-up risks.