• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.281-303
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• 2007

This paper examines the mainbank relationships of SMEs after the 1997 financial crisis in Incheon-Kyunggi and Daejeon-Chungnam regions where local banks have been merged by national banks. The results are as follows. First, national banks(except Industrial Bank of Korea and Kookmin bank) are reluctant to be mainbanks of regional SMEs. Second, those firms which have mainbank relationships with national banks borrow from relatively large number of banks. Third, their size measured by employees are relatively large. These tendencies become clearer after the 1997 financial crisis. It is the Industrial Bank of Korea and Kookmin bank that play important roles as mainbanks of regional SMEs. National banks including the Industrial Bank of Korea and Kookmin bank cannot be relationship lenders to SMEs due to the Williamson-type organizational diseconomies. It means that to ease the regional financial problems regional financial institutions are expected to play more active roles.