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Conference Paper
Loan loss provisioning and economic slowdowns: too much too late?
Only recently the debate on bank capital regulation has devoted specific attention to the role that bank loan loss provisions can play as a part of the overall minimum capital regulatory framework. Several national regulators have adopted or are planning to introduce a cyclically adjustable requirement for loan loss provisions and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is considering how to address provisioning practices within a broad bank capital regulatory framework. This paper contributes to the ongoing debate by exploring the available evidence about bank loan loss provisioning ...
Conference Paper
What drives bank competition? Some international evidence
Using bank-level data, we apply the Panzar and Rosse (1987) methodology to estimate the extent to which changes in input prices are reflected in revenues earned by specific banks in 50 countries' banking systems. We then relate this competitiveness measure to indicators of countries' banking system structures and regulatory regimes. We find systems with greater foreign bank entry and fewer entry and activity restrictions to be more competitive. We find no evidence that our competitiveness measure negatively relates to banking system concentration.
Conference Paper
Regulations, market structure, institutions, and the cost of financial intermediation
This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, market structure, and national institutions on bank net interest margins and overhead costs using data on over 1400 banks across 72 countries while controlling for bank specific characteristics. The data indicate that tighter regulations on bank entry and bank activities boost the cost of financial intermediation. Inflation also exerts a robust, positive impact on bank margins and overhead costs. While concentration is positively associated with net interest margins, this relationship breaks down when controlling for regulatory impediments ...
Conference Paper
The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis: a credit boon gone bad?