金融科技赋能与银行贷款配置:芝麻和西瓜能一起捡吗

Fintech-Enabled Bank Loan Allocation:Can Sesame Seeds and Watermelons be Picked Up Together?

增强金融服务实体经济的能力是金融科技发展的使命。本文实证考察商业银行发展金融科技对其贷款配置行为的影响及机制。研究发现,尽管银行发展金融科技能够显著促进零售贷款增长,但会对实体企业贷款产生“挤出效应”,且在贷款资源紧张的银行中表现得更为明显。机制检验表明,挤出实体企业贷款的贷款配置行为是银行出于增收益、减损失、降风险的理性决策所致。异质性分析表明,在对物理网点依赖程度低的银行和数字金融素养高的区域中,以及在消费者信心指数高和货币紧缩的宏观环境下,挤出效应更为明显。本文从银行贷款配置的独特视角指出了现阶段金融科技发展对实体经济的一种潜在负向影响,能够为推动我国金融科技高质量发展提供有益启示。

The mission of Fintech development is to enhance the ability of financial sector to serve real economy.This paper investigates the effect of the development of bank-level Fintech on banks'behaviors of loan allocation.We find that while an increase in commercial banks'Fintech can significantly boost the growth in retail loans,it can lead to a crowding-out effect on the loans originated to real enterprises,especially for banks with tight loan resources.We also document that the loan allocation behavior stylized by the crowding-out effect on real enterprises is a rational decision of banks aiming to increase returns,reduce losses,and diminish risks.Further,heterogeneity analyses show that the crowding-out effect is also more pronounced for banks with lower dependence on brick-and-mortar branches,banks located in regions with high digital financial literacy,and in macro environments with high consumer confidence scores and tight monetary policy.This paper offers novel evidence on potential negative impact of the development of Fintech-enabled retail loans on real economy from a unique perspective of crowding out the loans originated to real enterprises,which can offer helpful policy insights for regulators'efforts to support the high-quality development of Fintech in China.