Banks play a role in the corporate governance of firms in addition to acting as debt financiers around the world. Universal banks can have control over the borrowing firms by representation on the board of directors and by being a shareholder through direct equity stakes and bank’s asset management divisions equity holdings. We investigate the effects of these bank-firm governance links on the global syndicated loan market. We find that banks are more likely to act as lead arrangers in loans for firms where banks have control rights. Additionally, banks charge higher interest rate spreads and face less credit risk after origination when they have a link to the firm’s governance. Our results are robust to several methods that correct for the endogeneity of the bank-firm governance link. Our findings suggest that the influence of banks over firms’ governance accrues mostly to the banks’ benefit.