A number of countries' authorities put in place bank rescue packages using public funds in response to the global financial crisis. Were these public recapitalizations followed by a reduction of risk in banks' loan books? To answer this question, in this paper the balance sheets and syndicated...

The paper investigates whether impaired asset segregation tools, otherwise known as bad banks, and recapitalisation lead to a recovery in the originating banks' lending and a reduction in non-performing loans (NPLs). Results are based on a novel data set covering 135 banks from 15 European...