Do banks and industrial companies have equal access to reputable underwriters in debt markets?

We analyze whether banks and industrial companies have equal access to debt markets through reputable underwriters and explore the determinants of that matching for both types of firms. Using a sample of European corporate bonds during the years 2003–2013, we find that the odds of matching with a reputable underwriter were about 1.5 times greater for non-financial companies than for banks. The odds of matching with a reputable underwriter were 10.92 times lower for a bank during the crisis. As for the determinants of the matching probability, the marginal effect of the bond size on the matching probability is 1.70 larger for non-financial firms than for banks. Furthermore, the effect of bond size is greater for large non-financial companies than for large banks while the effect of maturity is larger for banks than for non-financial companies.

Carbó, S., P.J. Cuadros and F. Rodríguez (2017): “Do banks and industrial companies have equal access to reputable underwriters in debt markets?”, Journal of Corporate Finance, 45, August, pp. 176-202.