We model the impact of bank mergers on loan competition, banks' reserve holdings and aggregate liquidity. Banks compete in a differentiated loan market, hold reserves against liquidity shocks, and refinance in the interbank market. A merger creates an internal money market that induces financial...

This paper addresses a very European issue, the consolidation of securities trading and settlement infrastructures. In a two-country model, we analyze welfare implications of different types of consolidation. We find that horizontal integration of settlement systems is better than vertical...

Banks play a central role in financing and monitoring firms in transition economies. We study how bank competition affects the efficiency of the credit allocation, the monitoring of firms, and the firms' restructuring effort. In our model, banks compete to finance an investment project with...

We analyse risk-taking behaviour of banks in the context of spatial competition. Banks mobilise unsecured deposits by offering deposit rates, which they invest either in a prudent or in a gambling asset. Limited liability along with high return of a successful gamble induce moral hazard at the...

Latin America faces a growing concentration of banking markets, situation that worries both the public and the media for its potential impact on competition, access to credit at competitive rates, and thus the potential impact on its economic and social development. This paper provides a brief...

We analyze an oligopolistic microcredit market characterized by asymmetric information and institutions that can offer only one type of contract. We study the effects of competition on contract choice when small entrepreneurs can borrow from more than one institution due to the absence of credit...

The authors examine the effect of a trade-off between shared credit risk and liquidity efficiency, among participants in Tranche 2 of the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS T2), on their decisions to leave open, or close, their bilateral credit limits (BCLs) to a participant at risk of imminent...

In this paper, I empirically explore the relation between bank mergers and the rigidity of banks’ deposit rates. I find that merging banks are more likely to change their deposit rates in the first months following a merger. However, in the long term, merging banks change their deposit rates...

We assess the effect that the industrial policy of growing state-controlled national champions in Russia had on concentration and competitiveness of the banking system in 2000—2012. A modified method of calculating the indicators of market concentration suggests that the main segments of the...