This research extends the study of Boscaljon and Ho and test the effect of market response to bank loan announcement in the Hong Kong banking market after the 1997 Asian crisis. The study also investigates whether bank is still special in the financial market by comparing the market response to bank loan announcement and non-bank loan announcement. Finally, the study examines how loan characteristics influence the market response to bank loan announcement. The main findings of our study are consistent with the previous results documented for the US, Canada and Hong Kong markets, and further confirm the uniqueness of banks in the financial market. Moreover, we find that market response is significant positively related to borrower's debt ratio, and there is also a strong evidence of information leakage problem for non-bank loan announcements in the Hong Kong stock market. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.