This study investigates the changing relations between banks and their business customers in selected Asian emerging economies. These changes are manifest in declining bank lending growth and can be attributed to three major driving forces: cyclical factors, the fallout from the 1997 Asian crisis and structural factors affecting both the supply of and demand for bank credit. In response to declining lending growth and profits, banks have been diversifying their customer base and scope of activities. Alternative strategies to restore profitability and stay afloat in the global competition arena are consolidation and branching overseas. Faced with more stringent bank lending conditions in some cases, and seeking to reduce their debt loads, larger firms have been turning to capital markets as part of an effort to diversify their sources of funding. The measures taken by banks and firms to recover from the crisis and the 2001 downturn can be considered effective, but not sufficient to ...
