Abstract: Bank adoption of external application programming interfaces (APIs) enables bank customers to share their data more efficiently and securely with other third-party financial institutions and FinTechs. Analyzing determinants of API adoption by U.S. banks from 2007 to 2022, we show that banks that adopt APIs tend to face lower competitive pressure and are less capital-intensive. Banks that adopt APIs experience an increase in Return on Assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q and a decrease in loan loss provisions, particularly after President Biden’s executive order that encouraged greater bank data portability. We find that APIs’ ability to facilitate data access and sharing improves bank information flows and thereby supports banks’ loan and deposit services, which form the foundation of notable improvements in bank performance. Overall, our results on the determinants of API adoption and the implications for bank performance and information flow have important policy implications for the discussion on open banking regulation and bank data portability.

Conferences: EMFA (2024); Behavioral Finance Working Group (2024); British Academy of Management (2024); QMUL Economics and Finance Workshop (2024); CIMSC 2024 ICMA (2024); Lancaster-Manchester-Warwick Joint PhD Workshop on Quantitative Finance and Fintech (2024); AMBS Doctoral best paper (2024); FMA European conference (2023); FMARC conference (2023); AMBS doctoral conference (2022)

Best PhD Paper Award of AMBS Doctoral conference (2024)

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Media Coverage: Renmin University of China (RUC) FinTech Institute

Abstract: We assess small banks' responses to announcements of state-level proposals of Privacy Protection Acts (PPAs). Employing a Difference-in-Differences framework, we uncover the proactive actions taken by U.S. small banks in anticipation of these proposals. Our findings reveal that the announcement of PPA proposals leads to a 35.46% increase in IT investment by U.S. small banks, primarily driven by market pressure, with regulatory pressure playing a more limited role. Particularly, evidence suggests that banks with greater competitive threats from their rivals are motivated to enhance their IT investments due to market pressures. However, our research also finds that this surge in IT investment does not immediately translate into benefits for small banks. 

Conferences: Sydney Banking and Financial Stability Conference (2024); IFABS* (2024); EFMA* (2024); China Banking & Corporate Finance Conference* (2024); Jinan University* (2024)

Abstract: We study the implications of state-level data privacy legislation (DPL) on racial disparities in U.S. mortgage lending. Using a Difference-in-Difference-in-Differences model, we find that DPL reduces the mortgage denial gap between minority and non-minority borrowers by 3% and the interest rate gap by 0.08 percentage points. These effects stem from a shift toward more automated, hard data-driven mortgage underwriting processes and increased FinTech lending, particularly in areas with high minority population, low bank branch density and high racial animus. Our results highlight the unintended beneficial consequences of data privacy laws for minority borrower outcomes, with wider implications for credit access, financial inclusion, and the evolving mortgage lending market. 

Conferences: Bundesbank-IWH-CEPR conference-The Future of Banking* (2025); IE Doctoral Consortium (2025); Women in Finance* (2025); Behavioural Finance Working Group* (2025); Durham Conference for Finance Job Market (2025); 4th Conference on International Sustainable and Climate Finance (CINSC)* (2025); 32nd Finance Forum (2025); 3rd ESF European Sustainable Finance PhD Workshop (2025); AMBS-Zhejiang University AI PhD workshop (2025); AFBC (2024); IFABS (2024); Sydney Banking and Financial Stability Conference (2024); Financial Fraud, Misconduct, and Market Manipulation Conference (2024); Academy of Sustainable Finance, Accounting, Accountability & Governance Conference (2024); Renmin University (2024); Xiamen University (2024); University of International Business and Economics (2024); Nankai University (2024); Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (2024); Shandong University (2024); SEED (2024); 

Travel Grants: EFA travel grant (2024); Future of Financial Information travel grant (2025); FINANCE FORUM travel grant (2025); European Sustainable Finance travel grant (2025); IE Doctoral Consortium travel grant (2025)

Abstract: The banking and financial services industry has been witnessing a large-scale digital transformation. The opening of bank customer data through external Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) has created competitive and regulatory pressure on banks to innovate and provide customers with more control over their data. Traditional incumbent banks face an inherent dilemma regarding the adoption of bank APIs as it could improve the service offerings to bank customers, but also risks removing the banks’ monopoly on valuable customer data. Our empirical analysis of the implications of API adoption for bank efficiency and credit risk shows that API adoption has significant effects on efficiency, with market concentration having a moderating effect and Read-only and Read-Write APIs yielding different effects on bank efficiency and credit risk. Our study highlights the need for banks to carefully consider the type of APIs to maximize benefits while mitigating potential risks.

Conferences: ICIS Proceedings (2024)