Integration culture of global banks and the transmission of lending shocks

Abstract

We document that a centralization decision-making culture of global banks affects the transmission of shocks from parent banks to their subsidiaries. Using a novel measure of integration culture of multinational banking conglomerates based on the prevalence of a language of power and authority in financial reports, we find that subsidiaries of banks with a relatively more autocratic integration culture cut lending significantly more after solvency shocks to the parent company. Our result is robust to instrumenting integration culture with political and economic factors of the parent bank’s home country.