Assessing the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) --- a financial rescue program designed to cover firms' payroll expenses during the Covid-19 pandemic --- I document that the decision of managers whether to reveal the bailout loan details to the public dominates the disclosure strategy of firms that engage in relationship lending, especially for longer and more intense relationship. Examining potential economic channels, I find that strategic disclosure is unlikely to be driven by habit formation or liquidation concerns. Instead, the evidence suggests that strategic disclosure is driven by relationship capital considerations, where firms incur the costs of disclosing unfavorable news to reduce lenders' monitoring concerns in exchange for future lending benefits. Overall, the findings highlight a novel economic channel for releasing unfavorable information in which relationship lending has a disciplinary effect on firms' strategic disclosure, especially during times of crisis when debt monitoring becomes more relevant.

While banks historically offer a litany of different credit and depository products to their local customers, technological innovation and consumer preferences have spurred growth of online banks specializing in particular activities across broad geographic areas. This paper analyzes the unintended consequences of online banks' specialized lending model on small business lending. We use loans in the SBA program, which provides guarantees to motivate partner-lenders to lend to higher-risk borrowers. We find that online banks expand credit access, lending in disadvantaged and underserved geographies. While providing credit, online banks target higher guarantees, generating a cross-subsidy from traditional lenders, borrowers, and the government to online lenders.

We analyze the effect of corporate investments in fintech startups on startup performance and on the future performance of investing firms. Corporate investment in fintech startups is associated with greater successful exit likelihood; more and higher quality innovation; and higher inflow of high-quality inventors. We establish causality using an IV analysis. A stacked difference-in-differences analysis shows that such investments enhance the product market performance and equity market valuation of corporate investors belonging to the financial services sector, but not those in the non-financial sector. We show that formation of strategic alliances between investors and fintech startups drive these performance improvements.