Couaillier, Cyril; Lo Duca, Marco; Reghezza, Alessio; … - 2022
While regulatory capital buffers are expected to be drawn to absorb losses and meet credit demand during crises, this … paper shows that banks were unwilling to do so during the pandemic. To the contrary, banks engaged in forms of pro …-cyclical behaviour to preserve capital ratios. By employing granular data from the credit register of the European System of Central …