Banks are often considered as particularly important in an economy because of their role as financial intermediaries between suppliers and users of capital. Through this research effort, we wish to better understand whether one of the features that makes banks† specia? as providers of capital is their ability to combine their commercial banking and investment banking operations to provide financing solutions that non-bank lenders cannot provide. We plan on investigating this issue by examining borrowing and risk management practices in the oil and gas sector. We anticipate a total budget of US $50,000 and a total project duration of one year.