Using information on commercial banks from 2001 to 2014, we examine how bank characteristics affect their lending behaviors. While risky banks show higher lending ratios than prudent banks before the 2007 financial crisis, prudent banks showed higher excess loan growth rates, contributing to the high aggregate credit supply before the crisis. In the precrisis period, prudent banks with more assets, higher BIS ratio, higher core deposit ratio or lower NPL ratio are more aggressive in increasing their lending. These results are driven from lending to households rather than commercial borrowers. More aggressive lending leads to lower performance, exhibiting lower excess Return growth and higher excess NPL growth rates. But after the 2007 crisis, prudent banks have decreased their lending growth rates more sharply than risky banks.