{"title":"Does FinTech reduce human biases? Evidence from advisory vs. automated FinTechs in lending","authors":"Yanting Chen , Yingwei Dong , Jiayin Hu , Yiping Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107557","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107557","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate whether FinTech can mitigate human biases in lending decisions using proprietary loan-level data from a Chinese auto equity lender. The lender first integrated big data credit scoring as an advisory tool to enhance its traditional lending model, subsequently transitioning to algorithmic decision-making with optional human override. Our findings reveal that cognitive biases decrease significantly when loan officers use algorithmic lending decisions, substantially reducing disparities in loan-to-value ratios between local and nonlocal borrowers without exacerbating default differentials. Notably, the discretionary adjustments made by loan officers remain modest. In contrast, advisory credit scores alone exhibit no discernible bias-reducing effects. Our study is among the first to demonstrate that automation and choice architecture – specifically, nudging via algorithmic defaults – is more effective than mere information provision in combating discrimination and promoting financial inclusion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107557"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does broadband infrastructure promote households’ welfare in wealth management? Evidence from the construction of cell towers and the purchase of Yu’E Bao in China","authors":"Jiapin Deng , Xiaoxia Li , Yanchu Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107576","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107576","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Marshalling a large and novel dataset of cell towers and using the purchase of Yu’E Bao as a proxy for Chinese households’ investment in money market funds, this paper investigates how broadband infrastructure affects the welfare of households in wealth management. We find that with the improvement in broadband infrastructure, Internet service becomes more available to households and they tend to convert bank deposits with suppressed rates of interest into money market funds that provide less regulated and hence higher rates of return. Further analyses show that the effect of broadband infrastructure on the conversion of bank deposits into money market funds is more pronounced in counties with lower density of bank branches and among less educated people. Our empirical findings suggest that by alleviating the policy distortions imposed on the traditional banking sector, online financial products and service are powerful tools in the promotion of financial inclusion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107576"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"All Days Are Not Created Equal: Understanding Momentum by Learning to Weight Past Returns","authors":"Heiner Beckmeyer, Timo Wiedemann","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107565","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107565","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>By flexibly weighting the information contained in past realized returns, we construct a momentum strategy that outperforms and subsumes the performance of traditional stock momentum. The strategy performs well in crises and continues to work in the most recent decades. We show that the way past returns are weighted is in line with the strategy exploiting an underreaction to the information contained in realized returns, but also investigate alternative behavioral and risk-based explanations. We find that the response to earnings announcements, market-wide jumps and large individual returns realized in the formation period are most informative about future stock returns.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107565"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145270369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unencumbered by style: Why do funds change factor loadings, and does it help?","authors":"Ting Bai , Jens Hilscher , Anna Scherbina","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107544","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107544","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We show that, rather than maintaining a constant style, active equity funds alter their factor loadings over time. Style changes are larger following quarters in which funds either substantially under- or out-perform other funds based on returns or fund flows, which is explained by managers both not correcting the resulting passive style drift and deliberately reallocating a portion of the portfolio. Motivated by this observation, we identify a new measure of manager skill, which we call “tactical investment skill.” It captures a manager’s ex-ante observable ability to increase future returns through loadings changes. We show that high-skill managers outperform their low-skill peers in the following month in terms of raw returns and alphas. This outperformance is more pronounced following quarters with large loadings changes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107544"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145160422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Steven Xianglong Chen , Zhangfan Cao , Xiaolan Zheng
{"title":"Does trade secret protection spur human capital investment? Evidence from the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine","authors":"Steven Xianglong Chen , Zhangfan Cao , Xiaolan Zheng","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107559","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107559","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the effect of trade secret protection on corporate investment in human capital. By leveraging the staggered adoption of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD) by U.S. states as an exogenous shock that significantly reduces talent mobility, we find that IDD adoption results in firms overinvesting in human capital, suggesting that firms strategically engage in precautionary human capital hoarding in response to the reduced talent supply in the labor market and increased labor adjustment costs. Our cross-sectional analyses show that the effect of IDD adoption on human capital investment is more pronounced for (1) firms in high-skill industries and (2) firms facing higher levels of product market competition. Finally, further analyses reveal that, in the context of a limited talent supply under IDD restrictions, high-skill firms with human capital reserves enjoy superior performance to those without such reserves. Overall, our study reveals an unintended consequence of growing trade secret protection in shifting the focus of firms’ human capital investment from “head-hunting” talent from rivals to “internal cultivation” of existing human capital within firms and has implications for both managers and policymakers amid the increasingly knowledge-intensive economic environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107559"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A revisit to the IPO spillover effect: On the importance of technological proximity","authors":"Christine Jiang , Yiyin Wu , John Qi Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107563","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107563","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An initial public offering (IPO) can have diverse impacts on incumbent firms. We identify a valuation channel using a pairwise measure of technological proximity between the new entrant and incumbent firms. By analyzing the patent data of firms listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Board, we find a significant increase in the valuation of the incumbent firm when its patent portfolio exhibits a higher degree of similarity to the IPO firm. This positive spillover effect differs from other well-documented peer effects of IPO shocks, suggesting a novel mechanism that operates through technological linkages, particularly among technology-intensive firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107563"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The innovation effects of regulation on bank wealth management products: Theory and evidence from China","authors":"Hong Chen , Zhao Jin , Yanfei Tang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107558","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107558","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates how the regulation of bank wealth management products (WMPs) affects corporate innovation. We build a concise model linking firms’ assets allocation decisions to regulatory variables affecting banks. The model suggests that current WMP regulation can enhance formal lending and stimulate innovation among state-owned enterprises (SOEs), while having no impact on innovation in private enterprises (PEs). Empirically, we identify firms’ exposure to bank regulation by examining the number of WMPs issued by banks in 2017 and the distance between banks and firms. Our results indicate that innovation output significantly increased for highly exposed SOEs, while there was no significant change for PEs. Using city-level data, we further observe that regulation fosters innovation in regions with higher exposure. Our findings suggest that regulation exerts heterogeneous effects on the real economy by banks’ credit allocation and firms’ investment strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107558"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145270370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Non-bank lending and firm performance: Evidence from the syndicate loan market","authors":"Sonny Biswas , Neslihan Ozkan , Junyang Yin","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107561","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107561","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We find that in the leveraged loan sector, firms borrowing from non-banks have lower profitability following loan originations, compared to firms borrowing from banks, after controlling for observable factors. As non-bank borrowers experience less intense monitoring than bank borrowers, they engage in more risk-taking, which could explain their lower profitability following loan issuance. Using the leveraged lending guidance as a plausibly exogenous shock, which resulted in the migration of borrowers from banks to non-banks, we provide causal evidence corroborating our main results. Overall, our findings suggest that macroprudential policies which exclusively target the traditional banking sector may have negative consequences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107561"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145270368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trend factors around the world: Performance and determinants","authors":"Yufeng Han , Xi Nancy Mo , Jian Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107552","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107552","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the performance of trend factors across different markets around the world and demonstrates that the trend factors perform well across most of developed markets and many emerging markets, outperforming the market portfolio, short-term reversal, momentum, and long-term reversal. We further examine how cultural and legal differences influence the performance of the trend factor trading strategy and find it is more profitable in countries where the individualism is higher and securities laws are better enforced. Finally, the global trend factor aggregating individual market trend factors performs well and explains various global portfolios’ returns. The findings suggest that the trend factors present a challenge to traditional risk-based asset pricing theories, and trend factor trading strategies may deserve more attention in international portfolio management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107552"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145325865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Na Ding , Panpan Feng , Jianjun Liu , Zhaoyue Ren , Xueyong Zhang
{"title":"Economic policy uncertainty and covenants in venture capital contracts","authors":"Na Ding , Panpan Feng , Jianjun Liu , Zhaoyue Ren , Xueyong Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107562","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jbankfin.2025.107562","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects venture capital (VC) contract terms. Using a unique database of contracts between VCs and entrepreneurial firms in China, we provide evidence that EPU positively affects the presence of investor-friendly covenants in VC contracts. Our mechanism analysis shows that screening for high-quality startups and VCs’ increased bargaining power are potential channels. Furthermore, we find that including more investor-friendly covenants mitigates the negative effect of EPU on VC exit performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Banking & Finance","volume":"181 ","pages":"Article 107562"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145364160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}