Prudence as a competitive advantage: On the effects of competition on banks' risk-taking incentives

This paper builds on the notion that corporate borrowers care about the overall riskiness of a bank's operations as their continued access to credit may depend on the bank's ability to roll over loans or to expand existing credit facilities. A key implication of this observation is that increasing competition among banks should have an asymmetric impact on banks' incentives to take on risk: Banks that are already riskier will take on yet more risk, while their safer rivals will become even more prudent. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.