The Spatial Extent of Commercial Bank Deposit and Loan Contracts

Two sets of null hypotheses are posed and tested: First, that levels of both deposits and loans are positively related to the size of the deposit market and unrelated to distance to that market. Second, competition has no effect on the loans or deposits from or to a bank office. New primary survey data is analyzed. Distance is significant in both deposit and loan markets. Bank lending is almost wholly contained within an hour’s drive from the office. Local competition doesn’t matter for deposits, suggesting deposit markets are spatially integrated. It matters for loans, suggesting spatial credit market segmentation