Public credit disclosure and bank loan organization: evidence from China

We examine whether public credit disclosure changes the organization of firms’ bank borrowing. Using exchange-filed bank-borrowing announcements of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2024, we exploit the 2017 nationwide completion of China’s public credit disclosure system in an intensity-DID design based on pre-policy firm size. More exposed firms increase their multi-bank loan ratio by 1.8 percentage points, about 14% of the sample mean. Dynamic estimates show no differential pre-trends, and the result remains robust across alternative exposure measures, policy windows, fixed-effect structures, lender controls, and placebo tests. Amount-weighted ratios show that the response is not confined to announcement counts, and public-record outcomes show that the rollout expands the borrower information visible to outside lenders. Public disclosure therefore changes how listed firms organize bank borrowing.