What drives the short-term fluctuations of banks' exposure to interest rate risk?

We investigate whether banks actively manage their exposure to interest rate risk in the short run. Using bank-level data of German banks for the period 2011Q4- 2017Q2, we find evidence that banks actively manage their interest rate risk exposure in their banking books: They take account of their regulatory situation and adjust their exposure to the earning opportunities of this risk. We also find that the customers' preferences predominantly determine the fixed-interest period of housing loans and that the fixed-interest period of these loans has an impact on the banks' overall exposure to interest rate risk. This last finding is not in line with active interest rate risk management.