Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks

This paper estimates euro area banks’ internal target capital ratios and investigates whether banks’ adjustment to the targets affects their credit supply and securities holdings during the financial crisis in 2005–2011. Based on data on listed banks and country-specific macro-variables, a partial...

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Main Authors: Laurent Maurin, Mervi Toivanen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Warsaw 2015-04-01
Series:Journal of Banking and Financial Economics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://press.wz.uw.edu.pl/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=jbfe
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author Laurent Maurin
Mervi Toivanen
author_facet Laurent Maurin
Mervi Toivanen
author_sort Laurent Maurin
collection DOAJ
description This paper estimates euro area banks’ internal target capital ratios and investigates whether banks’ adjustment to the targets affects their credit supply and securities holdings during the financial crisis in 2005–2011. Based on data on listed banks and country-specific macro-variables, a partial adjustment model is estimated in a panel context. The results indicate, first, that an increase in the riskiness of banks’ balance sheets positively influences banks’ target capital ratios. On the euro area level, we find banks’ undercapitalisation in terms of Tier 1 capital ratio to be close to 2 percentage points in the middle of 2008. While median capital gaps diminish towards the end of 2011, the heterogeneity across individual banks increases. Second, the adjustment towards higher equilibrium capital ratios has a significant impact on banks’ assets. The impact is more sizeable on security holdings than on loans, thereby suggesting a pecking order of bank assets for deleveraging.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2015-04-01
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series Journal of Banking and Financial Economics
spelling doaj-art-a7b69e5d9e684a77978bd056a2895b172025-01-03T00:36:49ZengUniversity of WarsawJournal of Banking and Financial Economics2353-68452015-04-0120151(3)11312910.7172/2353-6845.jbfe.2015.1.5Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banksLaurent Maurin0Mervi Toivanen1European Central Bank, GermanyBank of FinlandThis paper estimates euro area banks’ internal target capital ratios and investigates whether banks’ adjustment to the targets affects their credit supply and securities holdings during the financial crisis in 2005–2011. Based on data on listed banks and country-specific macro-variables, a partial adjustment model is estimated in a panel context. The results indicate, first, that an increase in the riskiness of banks’ balance sheets positively influences banks’ target capital ratios. On the euro area level, we find banks’ undercapitalisation in terms of Tier 1 capital ratio to be close to 2 percentage points in the middle of 2008. While median capital gaps diminish towards the end of 2011, the heterogeneity across individual banks increases. Second, the adjustment towards higher equilibrium capital ratios has a significant impact on banks’ assets. The impact is more sizeable on security holdings than on loans, thereby suggesting a pecking order of bank assets for deleveraging.https://press.wz.uw.edu.pl/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=jbfebankseuro areacapital ratioscredit supplypartial adjustment model
spellingShingle Laurent Maurin
Mervi Toivanen
Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks
Journal of Banking and Financial Economics
banks
euro area
capital ratios
credit supply
partial adjustment model
title Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks
title_full Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks
title_fullStr Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks
title_full_unstemmed Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks
title_short Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks
title_sort risk capital buffers and bank lending the adjustment of euro area banks
topic banks
euro area
capital ratios
credit supply
partial adjustment model
url https://press.wz.uw.edu.pl/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=jbfe
work_keys_str_mv AT laurentmaurin riskcapitalbuffersandbanklendingtheadjustmentofeuroareabanks
AT mervitoivanen riskcapitalbuffersandbanklendingtheadjustmentofeuroareabanks