Bonding Through Crises with NBFIs

IMF Working Papers, September 18, 2026

Source details

Study period: 1990–2025.
NBFI cyclicality is function-specific:
- NBFIs contract syndicated loans relative to banks.
- NBFIs expand corporate bond underwriting, especially through bank-affiliated NBFIs.
Firms with stronger pre-crisis NBFI underwriting relationships:
- Are more likely to switch from loans to bonds.
- Raise more bond financing.
- Experience smaller declines in total borrowing.
- Exhibit stronger crisis outcomes.
Core interpretation: NBFIs may amplify stress as loan-market risk bearers while preserving market access as bond underwriters, reconciling competing views of nonbank cyclicality.

Data sources and market segments analyzed: primary-market syndicated loans and corporate bonds.
Time coverage: 1990–2025.
Empirical focus: role of NBFIs in corporate debt markets during banking crises, with attention to bank-affiliated NBFIs versus other NBFIs.

Monitoring and regulatory attention should distinguish NBFI functions (loan risk-bearing vs bond underwriting) rather than treat NBFIs as homogeneous.
Bank-affiliated NBFIs play a notable role in expanding bond underwriting during crises; implications for contagion channels and market access policies should reflect this affiliation-specific behavior.
Firms’ pre-crisis relationships with NBFI underwriters affect resilience of corporate financing during banking crises; policies that influence relationship structures can alter corporate access to market-based financing in stress periods.

Source: IMF Working Papers — "Bonding Through Crises with NBFIs", Bruno Albuquerque and Melih Firat, September 18, 2026.