Abstract: Small and medium banks have the characteristics of simple organizational structure, short chain of information decision-making, and geopolitical advantages, so it has ′Small Bank Advantage′ in providing relationship lending for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). In order to explore the relationship between information transparency, the development of the credit system and the ′Small Bank Advantage′, and taking the core of the hypothesis of ′Small Bank Advantage′– ′information′ as the entry point, the empirical test is conducted by Logit model from the point of view of the loan demand, that is, SME and by using the data from Shenzhen SME board listed companies during 2009—2016. Results show that the development of information transparency and credit system have a significant impact on the ′Small Bank Advantage′, and SME with lower information transparency has higher probability of obtaining loan from small and medium-sized banks than that of large banks, which means that the ′Small Bank Advantage′ still plays a certain role at this stage. However, with the development of credit system, more and more complete credit information can effectively make up for the weaknesses of SMEs′ low information transparency, and increase the opportunities for SMEs to obtain loans from large banks, thus gradually weakening the ′Small Bank Advantages′.

Key words: information transparency, credit system, SME, Small Bank Advantage