Updates News 15 October 2025 - 15 January 2026

January 20, 2026, 11:54 PM EST. New research examines how broadband adoption reshapes credit supply in banking, focusing on Italy during 1998-2008. The authors merge granular broadband data with the Italian Credit Register, which tracks banks' requests to access borrowers' histories for screening and monitoring, and add bank-branch, asset, liability, and workforce data. To address endogeneity, they instrument with characteristics of the postwar telephone network and include local controls. A key predictor is the distance between bank branches and internet infrastructure. Results show that faster internet raises both the intensive and extensive margins of lending: a one standard deviation increase in connectivity (lower distance) boosts credit volume and the likelihood of a new bank-firm relationship. There is also a statistically significant, though modest, effect on pricing. The findings illuminate how information technology shapes bank behavior.