The Effect of Credit Scoring on Small-Business Lending

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of credit scoring on small-business lending for a sample of large U. S. banking organizations. We find that credit scoring is associated with an 8.4 percent increase in the portfolio share of small-business loans, or $4 billion per institution. However, we fail to uncover any specific attributes of bank small-business credit-scoring programs that lead to this increased lending. Overall, we conclude that credit scoring lowers information costs between borrowers and lenders, thereby reducing the value of traditional, local bank lending relationships.