For firms, this means that they have been able to obtain more favorable loan conditions by increasing the number of financial institutions that each of them transacts with.
However, if it becomes common for firms to choose the financial institution offering the lowest loan interest rate among a number of financial institutions when taking out a loan, regardless of whether the financial institutions have any transaction history or capacity to support businesses, business relationships between firms and their main bank will weaken. This may lower the efficiency of financial intermediation.