The macroeconomic determinants of banking sector distresses in the Nordic countries, Belgium, Ger-many, Greece, Spain and the UK are analysed using an econometric model estimated on panel data from partly the early 1980s to 2002. The dependent variable is the ratio of banks’ loan losses to...

This study demonstrates that the common view, whereby an increase in competition leads banks to increased risk taking, fails to hold in an environment where consumers can choose in which bank to make a deposit based on their knowledge of the riskiness incorporated in the banks' outstanding loan...

Since the introduction of the single currency in 1999, major progress has been made towards achieving an integrated European capital and financial market. Available evidence suggests, nevertheless, that the degree of integration varies greatly depending on market segment. Retail banking markets...

A topical concern in public-policy debate is that the current capital adequacy regulation designed for stand-alone financial institutions exhibits several weaknesses due to the emergence of large financial institutions combining several activities under common control. This paper addresses these...

This paper presents a model of the optimal bidding behaviour of a single bank in the context of fixed rate liquidity tenders. Banks’ bidding is shown to depend crucially on the central bank’s liquidity policy as regards tender allotments. The paper also analyses ECB liquidity policy in terms...

This paper constructs an equilibrium model for the short-term money market, when the central bank provides liquidity via variable rate tenders. The relation between market rate of interest and liquidity is derived from a single bank’s profit maximisation problem in the interbank market, and...

This paper tests market power in the banking industry. Price-cost margins predicted by different oligopoly models are calculated using discrete-choice demand estimates of own-price and cross-price elasticities. These predicted price-cost margins are then compared with price-cost margins computed...

The rating-sensitive capital charges on credit risks under the new Basel Accord are likely to increase the volatility of minimum capital requirements, which may force banks to hold larger capital cushions in excess of minimum requirements. We analyse this claim on the basis of numerical...

In this paper a game theoretic duopoly model is developed to analyse the development of an interbank payment system. There are two competing banks in the model, and payment services offered to the public are among their main products. The customer of the larger bank uses mainly intrabank payment...

In the discussion paper, we employ data on industry-specific corporate sector bankruptcies over the time period from 1986 to 2003 and estimate a macroeconomic credit risk model for the Finnish corporate sector. The sample period includes a severe recession with significantly higher-than-average...