Does Bank Efficiency Affect the Bank Lending Channel in China?

This work examines the impact of bank efficiency on the bank lending channel in China. Using a sample of 148 Chinese banks over the period 2006–2017, we investigate how the reaction of the loan supply to monetary policy actions depends on a bank's efficiency. We find limited evidence that bank efficiency hampers the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission. In addition, bank efficiency does favor the transmission of monetary policy for banks with low loan-to-deposit ratios. These results suggest that bank efficiency may influence the bank lending channel in certain cases.