In late June, Clemens Löffler from the Competence Center for Business Controlling & Accounting presented the article “(De)Centralized Debt Financing and Project Selection under Imperfect Bank Competition” at the annual meeting of the European Financial Management Association (EFMA) in Kristiansand, Norway.
In the article, co-authored by Thomas Kaufmann-Lerchl and Christopher Liska, the research team examines how companies should strategically structure their debt financing when banks do not operate under perfect competition.
A key finding presented at the “EFMA Conference 2026” is that, under certain conditions, it can be advantageous for companies to bundle financing decisions and combine strong projects with weaker ones — even if this seems counterintuitive at first glance.
The study makes it clear that companies should not view investment decisions and borrow separately. It is not enough to simply select the most promising projects; the appropriate form of debt financing must also be chosen. The study thus offers a new perspective on corporate finance. This was discussed with international colleagues at the excellently organized “EFMA Conference 2026” and enriched with valuable feedback.