This paper analyzes interest margin determinants in the Russian banking sector with a particular emphasis on the bank ownership structure. Using unique bank-level data covering Russia's entire banking sector for the 1999–2007 period, we find that the impact of a number of commonly used...

This paper focuses on policy measures taken to curb bank credit growth in the private sector in the pre-crisis period 2003–2007. Our analysis is based on an original survey conducted in 2010 on eleven central banks in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The findings reveal substantial policy...

We analyze the determinants of interest rate spreads of different loan categories in the Czech Republic during 2004–2011. We employ a detailed bank supervisory dataset that allows us to construct the actual spreads for four loan categories, namely small and large corporate loans, consumer...

Using a stylized real options model, we show that discretion over the timing of charging off a non-performing loan could be economically justified when collateral values are uncertain and there is a chance of loan recovery. The implied hypothesis of an “uncertainty dependence” aspect in loan...

Searching for greater inter efficiency has been used as a reason to modify the Spanish banking system since 2009. This paper aims to contribute to quantify the magnitude of efficiency, but not only the economic one, but also social and overall efficiency from 2000 to 2011. The case of Spain –...

This study examines the effect of banking sector consolidation on bank profit and cost efficiency using data from Japan. Our analysis shows that bank merger events have little impact on profit efficiency, but significantly lower cost efficiency. This suggests that government-coordinated...

Economic integration on the EU banking markets is expected to favor competition. However no study has been performed in the 2000s showing this trend. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by measuring the evolution of bank competition in all EU countries during the 2000s with the Lerner index...

This paper looks at the asset correlation bias resulting from firms’ assets and liabilities being denominated in different currencies. It focuses on the time-variation in the bias and on the dependency of the bias on currency movements. Overall, we find that the asset correlation bias for the...

This study examines the procyclicality of leverage among financial institutions using international evidence. Procyclicality occurs when financial institutions actively manage their balance sheets and use non-equity funding to finance change in assets. Since wholesale funding allows financial...

In order to complement the macro-prudential framework introduced in Basel III, we propose a new breed of indicators based on the degree of leverage which helps track the time-varying dimension of bank systemic risk—a key aspect of financial stability. Given the new sources of liquidity...