New Zealand Institute for the study of competition and regulation inc.

Abstract

We examine the propensity of Australian banks to participate in syndicated loans to corporate borrowers from 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.  We find that these banks participate more often, in greater numbers and in greater quantity for loans made to Australian and New Zealand borrowers.  However, much of this apparent bias can be attributed to differences in familiarity characteristics - legal systems, culture, banking presence and distance from Australia.  As these characteristics are likely to proxy for information availability, our results provide further support for the view that home bias phenomena are primarily due to information problems.