We provide a comprehensive analysis of the main drivers of bank lending in Europe and the United States over the period from 2008 to 2014. We relate bank characteristics prior to the global financial crisis to their lending behaviour during and after the crisis period. Our analysis confirms the existence of a bank lending channel, that seems stronger in Europe than in the United States, especially if we look at corporate loans rather than at the whole loan portfolio. We uncover that the main bank characteristics affecting lending are size, capitalization, liquidity, and ownership structure, as well as, to a lesser extent, reliance on deposits and exposure to government bonds. Some of these factors have indeed shielded bank lending as predicted, but the results are not always in the expected direction, which points to the existence of a revised version of the traditional bank lending channel.
Spillovers of the United States’ Unconventional Monetary Policy to Emerging Asia: The Bank Lending Channel
