Although cross-border bank lending has fallen sharply since the crisis, extending our bank ownership database from 1995-2009 up to 2013 shows only limited retrenchment in foreign bank presence. While banks from OECD countries reduced their foreign presence (but still represent 89% of foreign...

When do foreign banks have an advantage operating abroad and when not? Studying the performance of foreign banks in a large number of countries between 1999 and 2006, we find that this crucially depends on a number of factors. Specifically, foreign banks tend to perform better compared to...

While institutional differences have been found to affect country growth patterns, much has remained unexplained, including how economic actors"overcome"institutional weaknesses and how internationalization helps or hinders development. Banking is an institutionally-intensive activity and the...

While institutional differences have been found to affect country growth patterns, much has remained unexplained, including how economic actors overcome institutional weaknesses and how internationalization helps or hinders development. Banking is an institutionally-intensive activity and the...

Do foreign banks have an advantage operating abroad? The existing literature has come up with different answers. Studying the performance of foreign banks relative to domestic banks in a large number of countries between 1999 and 2006, we find that the answer importantly depends on a number of...

This paper describes an extensive data collection effort on foreign bank entry and documents important trends and patterns in foreign banks' presence. The data collected cover the period 1995-2006 and include the full bilateral matrix of individual bank source and host countries, and the mode of...

Familiarity with working in a specific institutional environment compared to its competitors can provide a firm with a competitive advantage, making it invest in specific host countries. We examine whether this notion of institutional competitive advantage drives banks to seek out specific...

This paper provides new insights into how financial globalization relates to international trade. Exploiting unique, time-varying, bilateral data on foreign bank ownership for many countries, we show that, for emerging markets, greater local foreign bank presence, especially from the importing...

Although cross-border bank lending has fallen sharply since the crisis, extending our bank ownership database from 1995-2009 up to 2013 shows only limited retrenchment in foreign bank presence. While banks from OECD countries reduced their foreign presence (but still represent 89% of foreign...

This paper provides a critical assessment of the costs and benefits of foreign bank ownership. It reviews the extensive literature on the impact of foreign banks and uses a unique database on bank ownership, covering 129 countries, to (re-)examine a number of the issues discussed. It documents...