scholarly journals Competition, capital growth and risk-taking in emerging markets: Policy implications for banking sector stability during COVID-19 pandemic

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253803
Author(s):  
Miroslav Mateev ◽  
Muhammad Usman Tariq ◽  
Ahmad Sahyouni

This paper investigates how banking competition and capital level impact on the risk-taking behavior of banking institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The topic is perceived to be of significant importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use data for more than 225 banks in 18 countries in the MENA region to test whether increased competition causes banks to hold higher capital ratios. Employing panel data techniques, and distinguishing between Islamic and conventional banks, we show that banks tend to hold higher capital ratios when operating in a more competitive environment. We also provide evidence that banks in the MENA region increase their capitalization levels in response to a higher risk and vice versa. Further, banking concentration (measured by the HH-index) and credit risk have a significant and positive impact on capital ratios of IBs, whereas competition does play a restrictive role in determining the level of their capital. The results hold when controlling for ownership structure, regulatory and institutional environment, bank-specific and macroeconomic characteristics. Our findings inform regulatory authorities concerned with improving the financial stability of banking sector in the MENA region to strengthen their policies in order to force banks to better align with capital requirements and risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
MUDEER AHMED KHATTAK ◽  
OMAR ALAEDDIN ◽  
MOUTAZ ABOJEIB

This research attempts to explore the impact of banking competition on financial stability employing a more precise measure of market power. It was found that Islamic banks are less stable and are enjoying lower market power. The analysis shows that higher market competition makes the banking sector vulnerable to defaults, supporting the “competition-fragility view”. This research finds no difference in the relationship for Islamic banks indicates that Islamic banks might be involved in traditional banking activities as conventional banks. The results are consistent and robust to different estimation approaches and subsamples. This research carries regulatory and policy implications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Mete Feridun ◽  
Alper Özün

PurposeIntroducing radical changes to the methodologies for the determination of capital requirements, the final stage of the Basel III standards, which is referred to as “Basel IV” by the industry, will be a significant challenge for the global banking sector. This article reviews the main components of the new framework, analyses its ongoing implementation in the European Union and discusses its potential impact on banks, putting forward policy recommendations.Design/methodology/approachThis article uses primary sources such as the publications by the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision and the European Commission. It also reviews the secondary sources, including both academic articles and analyses by various stakeholders. However, this article does not undertake any empirical analysis.FindingsThis article discusses that Basel IV will introduce strategic, operational and regulatory challenges for banks in scope. It also identifies a number of areas which are subject to further debate in the European Union such as the enhanced due diligence requirements under the new credit risk framework; governance, reporting and control rules under the operational risk framework; exemptions for certain derivative transactions under the credit valuation adjustment framework and the level of application of the capital floors within banking groups. This article concludes that the global implementation of the reforms by all jurisdictions and transposition into national banking laws concurrently with the European Union in line with the Basel Committee's implementation timeline is important from a financial stability standpoint.Originality/valueThe article presents an up-to-date and comprehensive review of the practical implications of Basel IV standards. It analyses the implementation of the standards in the case of the European Union, reviews the potential policy implications and presents recommendations for risk management practitioners.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-227
Author(s):  
Hamed Ahmad Almahadin ◽  
Thair Kaddumi ◽  
Qais AL-Kilani

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between financial stability and banking soundness in Jordan. For this purpose, the study mainly uses the FMOLS approach in addition to other analysis techniques and tools. The outcomes of the descriptive analysis show that the Jordanian financial system seems stable, and the indicators of banking soundness signal a steady and solid banking sector. The cointegration tests indicate that the considered variables have a long-term equilibrium relationship; the variables move together in the long term. The empirical results reveal that the majority of the banking soundness indicators have a positive impact on financial stability. This asserts that a sound banking sector plays a vital role in maintaining a stable financial system. However, the findings also indicate that a steady interest rate policy is one of the significant requirements for sustaining the stability of financial systems. Moreover, the response of financial stability with respect to economic growth changes is found to be positive and relatively high. On the fact of the importance of the topic under study, since financial stability is one of the major concerns of the authority bodies, the empirical findings can have very important policy implications for decision-makers.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Mateev ◽  
Syed Moudud-Ul-Huq ◽  
Ahmad Sahyouni

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of regulation and market competition on the risk-taking Behaviour of financial institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Design/methodology/approach The empirical framework is based on panel fixed effects/random effects specification. For robustness purpose, this study also uses the generalized method of moments estimation technique. This study tests the hypothesis that regulatory capital requirements have a significant effect on financial stability of Islamic and conventional banks (CBs) in the MENA region. This study also investigates the moderating effect of market power and concentration on the relationship between capital regulation and bank risk. Findings The estimation results support the view that capital adequacy ratio (CAR) has no significant impact on credit risk of Islamic banks (IBs), whereas market competition does play a significant role in shaping the risk behavior of these institutions. This study report opposite results for CBs – an increase in the minimum capital requirements is followed by an increase in a bank’s risk level, which has a negative impact on their financial stability. Furthermore, the results support the notion of a non-linear relationship between banking concentration and bank risk. The findings inform the regulatory authorities concerned with improving the financial stability of banking sector in the MENA region to set their policy differently depending on the level of concentration in the banking market. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of regulatory reforms (in this case, capital requirements) and market competition for bank performance and risk-taking. In regard to IBs, capital requirements are less effective in requiring IBs to adjust their risk level according to the Basel III methodology. This study finds that IBs’ risk behavior is strongly associated with market competition, and therefore, the interest rates. Moreover, banks operating in markets with high banking concentration (but not necessarily, low competition), will decrease their credit risk level in response to an increase in the minimum capital requirements. As a result, these banks will be more stable compared to their conventional peers. Thus, regulators and policymakers in the MENA region should restrict the risk-taking behavior of IBs through stringent capital requirements and more intense banking supervision. Practical implications The practical implications of these findings are that the regulatory authorities concerned with improving banking sector stability in the MENA region should proceed differently, depending on the level of banking market concentration. The findings inform regulators and policymakers to set capital requirements at levels that would restrict banks from taking more risk to increase their returns. They are also important for bank managers who should avoid risky strategies in response to increased regulatory pressure (e.g. increase in the minimum required capital level of 8%), as they may lead to an increase in the level of non-performing loans, and therefore, a greater probability of bank default. A future extension of this study will focus on testing the effect of bank risk-taking and market competition on the capitalization levels of banks in the MENA countries. More specifically, this study will investigates if banks raise their capitalization levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value The analysis of previous research indicates that there is no unambiguous answer to the question of whether IBs perform differently than CBs under different competitive conditions. To fill this gap, this study examines the influence of capital regulation and market competition (both individually and interactively) on bank risk-taking behavior using a large sample of banking institutions in 18 MENA countries over 14 years (2005–2018). For the first time in this line of research, this study shows that the level of market power is positively associated with the level of a bank’ insolvency risk. In others words, IBs operating in highly competitive markets are more inclined to take a higher risk than their conventional peers. Regarding the IBs credit risk behavior, this study finds that market power has a limited impact on the relationship between CAR and risk level. This means that IBs are still applying in their operations the theoretical models based on the prohibition of interest.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 754-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dionisis Philippas ◽  
Yiannis Koutelidakis ◽  
Alexandros Leontitsis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of interbank connections and shocks on banks’ capital ratios to financial stability by looking at a network comprising a large number of European and UK banks. Design/methodology/approach – The authors model interbank contagion using insights from the Susceptible Infected Recovered model. The authors construct scale-free networks with preferential attachment and growth, applying simulated interbank data to capture the size and scale of connections in the network. The authors proceed to shock these networks per country and perform Monte Carlo simulations to calculate mean total losses and duration of infection. Finally, the authors examine the effects of contagion in terms of Core Tier 1 Capital Ratios for the affected banking systems. Findings – The authors find that shocks in smaller banking systems may cause smaller overall losses but tend to persist longer, leading to important policy implications for crisis containment. Originality/value – The authors infer the interbank domestic and cross-border exposures of banks employing an iterative proportional fitting procedure, called the RAS algorithm. The authors use an extend sample of 169 European banks, that also captures effects on the UK as well as the Eurozone interbank markets. Finally, the authors provide evidence of the contagion effect on each bank by allowing heterogeneity. The authors compare the bank’s relative financial strength with the contagion effect which is modelled by the number and the volume of bilateral connections.


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (01) ◽  
pp. 5-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
AHMET FARUK AYSAN ◽  
MUSTAFA DISLI ◽  
HUSEYIN OZTURK

This paper examines to what extent macroprudential policies in the Turkish banking sector affected the functioning of depositor discipline. Our results suggest that depositors’ responses for poor bank performance get stronger after the 2008 crisis, when various macroprudential measures were implemented to preserve financial stability. In the aftermath of the crisis, bank behavior toward depositors also alters. Ahead of the crisis, banks did not significantly respond to the discipline exerted by depositors, however, banks begin offering higher rates to curb deposit withdrawals afterwards. Our findings suggest that the implementation of macroprudential tools seem to have a positive impact on financial stability, since, in the post-2008 period, regulatory supervision have been more firmly assisted by the market.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-30
Author(s):  
Mariusz Próchniak

Abstract This study aims at assessing to what extent institutional environment is responsible for worldwide differences in economic growth and economic development. To answer this question, we use an innovative approach based on a new concept of the institutions-augmented Solow model which is then estimated empirically using regression equations. The analysis covers 180 countries during the 1993-2012 period. The empirical analysis confirms a large positive impact of the quality of institutional environment on the level of economic development. The positive link has been evidenced for all five institutional indicators: two indices of economic freedom (Heritage Foundation and Fraser Institute), the governance indicator (World Bank), the democracy index (Freedom House), and the EBRD transition indicator for post-socialist countries. Differences in physical capital, human capital, and institutional environment explain about 70-75% of the worldwide differences in economic development. The institutions-augmented Solow model, however, performs slightly poorer in explaining differences in the rates of economic growth: only one institutional variable (index of economic freedom) has a statistically significant impact on economic growth. In terms of originality, this paper extends the theoretical analysis of the Solow model by including institutions, on the one hand, and shows a comprehensive empirical analysis of the impact of various institutional indicators on both the level of development and the pace of economic growth, on the other. The results bring important policy implications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Debashis Saha ◽  
Prodip Chandra Bishwas ◽  
Md. Mustofa Ahmed Sumon

The banking sector is the most vital partner of development for countries' economies. It has a remarkable contribution to the country's Gross Domestic Product. This study investigates the relationship between the market interest rate and commercial banks' financial performance. As Bangladesh's banking industry is growing, it is vital to maintain a more robust profitability level for its financial stability and soundness. Banks have some determinants that have a significant impact on their performance. The convenience sampling method is used to select the targeted sample. The study includes the time series data of eight years of fifteen commercial banks listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh. Multiple variable linear regression and correlation analysis are performed to examine the relationship of market interest rate with banks' profitability with statistical software, IBM SPSS version 25, and Microsoft excel. The study explored that the market interest rate has a significant positive impact on banks' profitability. It is also found that the lending rate and interest rate spread are significantly correlated with the banks' financial performance. The study recommended that banks make their investment to make a higher profit margin to enhance their management and financial soundness efficiency.


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