Screening and Monitoring Corporate Loans

We study a dynamic moral hazard problem in which a bank originates a pool of loans that it sells to competitive investors via securitization. The bank controls the default risk of the loans by screening at origination and monitoring after origination, but it is subject to moral hazard. The optimal contract between the bank and investors can be implemented via a time-decreasing stake within the loan pool, so the bank's monitoring incentives decrease and default risk increases over time. We find that screening and monitoring have positive incentive synergies and are complements. Credit ratings distort incentives, potentially increasing credit risk, and are particularly beneficial for high quality and short-maturity loans.