| Small and medium-sized banks,as a component of Chinese banking industry that cannot be ignored,make great contributions to the promotion of inclusive finance.However,compared with the large state-owned banks,many small and medium-sized banks have imperfect internal governance,weak risk management ability,less policy support,and high capital cost,and are relatively vulnerable in the market competition,which has been the high risk zone of Chinese banks for a long time.According to analysis,because of the cost of capital and information search ability,small and medium-sized banks have difficulty in attracting high-quality customers,which is one of the reasons for their high level of risk taking.The development of digital finance can reduce information asymmetry,reduce transaction costs,improve risk pricing ability,risk management level and information data processing efficiency.In view of this,will the development of digital finance become a breakthrough point for small and medium-sized banks to reduce risks,or will it aggravate their risk taking as some scholars have studied?Whether small and medium-sized banks of different types are affected by digital finance to the same extent;The research on the role of banks’ credit behavior in the relationship between digital finance and risk taking of small and medium-sized banks is crucial to the survival and development of small and medium-sized banks under the background of digital finance.This paper firstly analyzes the relationship between digital finance and risk taking of small and medium-sized banks,the heterogeneity of risk taking of small and medium-sized banks,and the mediating role of credit behavior in digital finance and risk taking of small and medium-sized banks on the basis of realistic background and relevant theories,and then puts forward the research hypothesis.Then,the panel data of 66 small and medium-sized banks(including 12 joint-stock banks,30 urban commercial banks and 24 rural commercial banks)are used to construct the relevant model and conduct empirical test.The empirical test results show that:(1)digital finance increases the risk taking of small and medium-sized banks.(2)Compared with listed banks and joint-stock banks,the risk-taking of non-listed banks,urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks is more susceptible to the influence of digital finance.(3)In the credit behavior,the loan scale and loan interest rate play an intermediary role between digital finance and the risk taking of small and medium-sized banks.Digital finance aggravates the risk taking of small and medium-sized banks by increasing the loan scale;Digital finance increases the risk taking of small and medium-sized banks by reducing the loan interest rate;The difficulty of loan approval plays a obscuring effect between digital finance and risk taking of small and medium-sized banks.(4)Robustness test,the results are consistent with the above conclusions.Finally,according to the empirical test results,countermeasures and suggestions are provided from three aspects:improving the supervision and management mechanism,optimizing the credit decision-making mechanism of small and medium-sized banks,and enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized banks,so as to find a breakthrough point in the competition effect brought by the development of digital finance and ease their risk-taking. |
