878 US bank holding companies over the period 2001–2009, I find strong evidence of income smoothing behavior. Additionally …, bank holding companies accelerate loan loss provisions to smooth income when (1) banks hit the regulatory minimum target …, (2) are in non-recessionary periods, and (3) are more profitable. I also find that bank internally set regulatory capital …

This paper studies episodes in which aggregate bank credit contracts alongside expanding economic activity-credit …--on average, they occur every five years. By comparison, banking crises take place every eight years on average. Credit reversals …