The "Middle-Risk Gap" and Financial System Reform: Small-Firm Financing in Japan
The "Middle-Risk Gap" and Financial System Reform: Small-Firm Financing in Japan
复制标题
“中等风险缺口”与金融体系改革：日本的小企业融资
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Ulrike Schaede
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ulrike Schaede
本文讨论了令人困惑的存在和持续的一个明显的“中等风险差距”在日本的利率结构，这反映了一个不发达和扭曲的市场，为小企业融资。本文表明，系统性原因（包括从以前依赖真实的房地产抵押品的转变，对银行战略的社会约束，银行资本充足率约束，以及证券化债务市场不发达）和对银行的政治压力的汇合抑制了私人银行在中间市场的活动，并需要专门的银行为小企业融资。二是贷款利率结构总体水平偏低。本文认为，日本政府对小企业贷款的大力补贴压低了贷款利率，加剧了中等风险缺口，给银行改革造成了巨大障碍。然而，这些补贴小公司的贷款最好被理解为福利，虽然它们扭曲了市场，但不能简单地在没有替代品的情况下废除它们。中等风险缺口是日本金融体制改革进展缓慢的重要原因，也是一个强有力的指标。日本银行业走向市场化的成功改革必须从利率结构开始开始。
This paper addresses the puzzling existence and persistence of a pronounced "middle-risk gap" in Japan's interest rate structure, which reflects an underdeveloped and distorted market for small-firm finance. The paper shows that a confluence of systemic reasons (including a shift away from the former reliance on real estate collateral, social constraints on bank strategies, bank capital adequacy constraints, and an underdeveloped market for securitized debt) and political pressure on banks have inhibited private bank activity in the middle market and necessitated specialized banks for small-firm financing. A second concern is the overall low level of the loan interest rate structure. The paper argues that the Japanese governments small-firm loan programs at greatly subsidized rates have depressed loan rates and exacerbated the middle- risk gap, creating great impediments to banking reforms. However, these subsidized small-firm loans are best understood as welfare, and while they are market-distorting they cannot simply be abolished without a substitute. The middle-risk gap is both a strong indicator of, and an important reason for, the slow course of financial system reform in Japan. Successful reforms toward a greater market orientation in Japanese banking must begin with the interest rate structure.