Bank Loan Loss Provisions, Investor Protection and the Macroeconomy

This study investigates the non-discretionary determinants of bank loan loss provisions in Africa after controlling for macroeconomic fluctuation, financial development and investor protection. We find that non-performing loans, loan-to-asset ratio and loan growth are significant non-discretionary drivers of bank provisions in the African region. We observe that bank provision is a positive function of non-performing loans up to a threshold beyond which bank provisions will no longer increase as non-performing loans increases. Also, bank loan-to-asset ratio is a significant driver of bank provisions when African banks have higher loan-to-asset ratios. Also, larger banks in financially developed African countries have fewer loan loss provisions while increase in bank lending leads to fewer bank provisions in countries with strong investor protection. Finally, higher bank lending is associated with higher bank provisions during economic boom. The findings have implications