Collateral Registries for Movable Assets: does their introduction spur firms’ access to bank finance?

This working paper uses firm-level surveys of up to 73 countries to explore the impact of introducing collateral registries for movable assets on firms’ access to bank finance. The authors find that overall the introduction of registries is associated with an increase in the likelihood that a firm has a bank loan, line of credit or overdraft, a rise in the share of the firm’s working capital and fixed assets financed by banks, a reduction in the interest rates paid on loans, and an increase in the maturity of bank loans.