While the new capital adequacy framework, Basel II, aims to make the banks’ capital requirements more sensitive to the underlying risk of the assets, it may also introduce an additional source of procyclicality in the banking sector. A growing share of the literature has assessed the potential...

Norges Bank has since 1989 been using a risk index for banks. The purpose of this risk index is to identify potential problem banks, and to obtain a general picture of the health of the banking industry. In 1994 the risk index was reconstructed based on research by Sigbjørn Atle Berg and Barbro...

Bank revenues have a time variation pattern over the business cycle. Since revenues are a major determinant of bank capital and lending capacity, the time variation may have an impact on the real economy and may potentially amplify the business cycle. It will therefore be useful to understand...