ABSTRACT
Based on the data of 197 banks in China from 2010 to 2020, this paper examines the impact of bank branch establishment on their associated risk taking, and explores the intermediary channel mechanisms of loan-deposit spread. The research findings are as follows: (1) Bank branch expansion increases bank risk taking. (2) The establishment of branches of commercial banks has significant heterogeneity characteristics on bank risk taking. (3) Branch expansion has significantly increased the level of bank risk taking through the increase of loan-deposit spread.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).