How did credit guarantee fund supports affect the bank-loan network in Türkiye?

Abstract

Using granular data from the Turkish banking system, we investigate the effect of credit guarantee schemes (CGSs) in 2017 and early 2018 on bank connectedness originating from common borrower firms. Our empirical findings show that the CGSs affect the connectedness of banks differently. While CGSs significantly increases the connectedness of large and small banks, they do not have a significant effect on medium-sized banks. In addition, the connectedness of state-owned banks and private domestic banks are significantly increased with the CGSs. Moreover, the CGSs increase the centrality of the strongly connected banks, while they do not have a significant effect on the centrality of the moderately or weakly connected banks. Finally, we find that the negative relation between the connectedness of the banks and the bank loan portfolio riskiness strengthens with the CGSs.