Finally the model in this paper makes a new prediction about the effect of financial innovation
on the effects of monetary policy. Several economists have noted that improved risk management by
banks is likely to weaken the importance of the bank lending channel. For example Cecchetti (1996)
notes [in a discusion of the relative importance of the balance sheet and bank lending channels] that
‘with the introduction of interstate banking and the development of more sophisticated pools of
loans, it is only the balance sheet effects that will remain’. The model presented here predicts that,
given the interaction between the risk management activities of firms and financial institutions,
improved risk management by banks will lead to a transfer of risk away from firms and towards
banks (since banks have an improved ability to bear that risk). Thus, financial innovation may
weaken both the bank lending and balance sheet channels (even if small firms never directly make
use of the new hedging instruments). The recent proliferation of more flexible and customized types
of business and consumer loans is perhaps evidence of this ‘risk sharing’ effect in action.