Household Credit and Regulatory Arbitrage: Evidence from Online Marketplace Lending

Abstract

We study the relationship between new intermediaries and regulatory arbitrage, analyzing marketplace credit around a tightening of mortgage loan-to-value (LTV) caps in several cities in China in 2013. Using novel data covering over 20% of Chinese marketplace credit as well as the universe of loans and loan applications at a leading online lending platform, we provide evidence consistent with home buyers borrowing online to bypass the tighter LTV cap. Our findings point to new, lightly regulated financial intermediaries as a driver of household leverage, suggesting that they can open nonnegligible regulatory arbitrage channels. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4592 .