Bank loan renegotiation and financial institutions' network

We investigate how lender's capacity of sourcing information about a borrower, proxied by its centrality in the networks of syndicated lending, influences the process of bank loan renegotiation. Using a large sample of more than 6000 loans issued in 25 European countries we find that the presence of network-central and better-informed lenders in a syndicate has a significant impact on the renegotiation process, increasing the likelihood of renegotiation, the number of renegotiation rounds, and the number of amendments to the loan agreement. Our findings survive numerous robustness checks and confirm that access to superior information encourages private debt renegotiation.