Share pledging of insiders and corporate debt contracting

Abstract

We examine whether insiders’ pledging of company stock as collateral for personal loans influences a company’s debt contracting. We attempt to identify causality through difference-in-differences analyses of an unexpected legislative change that exogenously reduced board directors’ pledging incentives. We find that firms with higher initial pledging levels, which subsequently experienced a significant decline in pledging ratios due to the regulation, benefited from lower loan spreads and less stringent non-price loan terms. We further hypothesize and provide evidence that the positive impact of insider pledging on corporate borrowing costs is less pronounced in closely held firms. Examining the mechanisms, we find that share pledging is positively related to earnings management, firm risk-taking behaviors, and agency problems. Overall, these findings suggest that banks perceive insider share pledging as engendering significant risks.