Abstract: Corporate leverage manipulating behaviors can increase both corporate financial risks and systematic financial risks. From the perspective of information complementarity, this paper conducts an empirical analysis. The findings show that corporate digitalization can significantly lower the degree of its leverage manipulation, and that the digitalization has a more significant inhibiting effect on their leverage manipulation of the enterprises with weaker relationships with banks. The results of a mechanism test show that corporate digitalization increases the public information transparency of the enterprises with weaker relationships with banks, release financing constraints and inhibit the leverage manipulation of the enterprises. Further analysis reveals that the media attention, R&D investment, and the strength of bank-firm relationships can play a moderating role in the impact of corporate digitalization on its leverage manipulation. The result of the economic consequence analysis indicates that corporate digitalization can adjust the leverage structure of the enterprises with weaker bank-firm relationship, promote the enterprises from virtual to real, optimize the efficiency of resource allocation of bank credit, and reduce bank dependence on collaterals. The above-mentioned conclusions not only clarify the channel through which corporate digitalization reduces corporate leverage manipulation from the perspective of information complementarity but also provide insights for promoting corporate digitalization, the development of bank-fintech, and the integration of digital technology and the real economy.

Key words: corporate digitalization, leverage manipulation, information transparency, information complementary, bank-firm relationship