Bank Credit Cycles Research Articles

Global Financial Cycle, Household Credit, and Macroprudential Policies

We show that macroprudential policies dampen the impact of global financial conditions on local bank credit cycles. For identification, we exploit variation in the U.S. volatility index (VIX) and household and business credit registers in an emerging market economy in which banks depend on foreign funding and macroprudential measures vary over the full cycle. Our results suggest that when the VIX is low, tighter macroprudential policies reduce household lending, notably for riskier (foreign currency (FX) and high debt-service-to-income) loans and by banks dependent on foreign funding. Moreover, they increase (less regulated) local currency lending to real estate firms. Such periods are associated with less subsequent total lending to households and firms and with a lower share of FX loans at the local level. Consistently, when the VIX is low, tighter macroprudential policies dampen house prices and economic activity. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Funding: M. Epure acknowledges support from the Serra Húnter program. This project received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [Grant 648398], from the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion [Grants PID2020-115660GB-I00 and PGC2018-102133-B-I00], and the Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in Research and Development [Grant CEX2019-000915-S]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.4981 .

Bank credit, consumption risk, and the cross-section of expected returns

Although the consumption capital asset pricing model has an unmatched theoretical purity for assets’ risk, the empirical failure of the model stands as a central finding in asset pricing. In an effort to resuscitate consumption-based asset pricing model, we develop and estimate new conditional consumption capital asset pricing models with bank credit growth and bank credit cycle as conditioning variables. Rather than assuming the constant factor loadings of asset returns on consumption growth, we model time-varying consumption beta as a function of bank credit growth or bank credit cycle. We find that our specifications explain satisfactorily the variation in stock returns across the 25 Fama–French portfolios. Moreover, the strict statistical tests on risk price and explanatory power show that the models compare favorably with other renowned asset pricing models. These findings document that the dispersion of expected returns is the outcome of the degree of reward for consumption risk, thereby being consistent with asset pricing theory.

Monitorowanie ryzyka na rynku nieruchomości mieszkalnych w Polsce

This paper applies a framework for monitoring vulnerabilities in the residential real estate sector to the case of Poland. The framework considers indicators across three dimensions of real estate-related vulnerabilities, i.e. valuation, household indebtedness and the bank credit cycle, and builds a composite model-free measure shown to have a significant forecasting performance for real estate crises. The paper shows how the monitoring can be implemented for the Polish market, discusses the developments from a historical perspective, and highlights remaining data gaps.

Macroprudential policy in Asia

This paper analyses the conduct and the effects of macroprudential policy in 11 Asian economies, some of which used macroprudential instruments frequently already before the Great Financial Crisis. Data are quarterly for the period 2000–2014. The frequency of macroprudential measures has generally increased after the crisis, and policies are generally tightened during the upswing of a bank credit cycle. Estimates from panel vector autoregression models show that contractionary macroprudential policy shocks have negative effects on credit and output that are qualitatively similar to those of monetary policy. The results suggest that policy conflicts when credit growth is strong and the real economy is weak may be resolved through complementary use of macroprudential and monetary policy instruments.

Business cycles, credit cycles, and asymmetric effects of credit fluctuations: Evidence from Italy for the period of 1861–2013

We propose a joint dating of Italian business and credit cycles on a historical basis by applying a local turning-point dating algorithm to the level of the variables. In addition to short cycles corresponding to traditional business cycle fluctuations, we also investigate medium cycles because there is evidence that financial booms and busts are longer and more persistent than business cycles. The results show that medium-term cycles account for the largest part of fluctuations of the Italian credit cycle. Second, we find evidence that credit and business cycles are weakly synchronized in the medium term, whereas they steadily comove in the short term, when the GDP cycle is leading the bank credit cycle. However, the study found that, over the medium cycles, economic downturns associated with credit crunches and financial disruption are more severe than other types of economic downturns. Finally, by modelling interaction between credit and business cycles in a simple threshold VAR model, we confirm that GDP response to credit shock is much more intense in the recessionary phase of credit cycle.

The Non-Bank Credit Cycle

We investigate the cyclical properties of non-bank credit and its relevance for financial stability. We construct a measure of non-bank credit for a large sample of countries and find that its cyclical properties differ from those of bank credit. Non-bank credit cycles are highly correlated with bank credit cycles in some countries but not in others. Moreover, non-bank credit cycles are less synchronised than bank credit cycles across countries. Finally, non-bank credit cycles could act as a leading indicator for currency, but not for systemic banking, crises. The opposite is true for bank credit cycles. These findings highlight the value added of monitoring non-bank credit.

The Non-Bank Credit Cycle

We investigate the cyclical properties of non-bank credit and its relevance for financial stability. We construct a measure of non-bank credit for a large sample of countries and find that its cyclical properties differ from those of bank credit. Non-bank credit cycles are highly correlated with bank credit cycles in some countries but not in others. Moreover, non-bank credit cycles are less synchronised than bank credit cycles across countries. Finally, non-bank credit cycles could act as a leading indicator for currency, but not for systemic banking, crises. The opposite is true for bank credit cycles. These findings highlight the value added of monitoring non-bank credit.

Home, safe home: Cross-country monitoring framework for vulnerabilities in the residential real estate sector

Abstract This paper presents and assesses a framework for monitoring vulnerabilities related to the residential real estate sector, which can be easily employed for policy purposes. The framework provides intuitive and transparent early warning signals through a composite vulnerability measure, which aggregates indicators in a model-free way across three dimensions of real estate sector vulnerabilities (i.e. valuation, household indebtedness and the bank credit cycle). Our vulnerability measure proves to be a significant predictor of historical real estate crises, with a better forecasting performance than the majority of advantageously in-sample calibrated model-based measures.

Macroprudential Policy in the New Keynesian World

We integrate banks and the coexistence of bank and bond financing into an otherwise standard New Keynesian framework. There are two policy-makers: a central banker, who can decide on short-term nominal interest rates, and a macroprudential policy-maker, who can vary aggregate capital requirements. The two policy instruments can be used to stabilize shocks, to moderate bank credit cycles, and to induce a more efficient allocation of resources across sectors. Moreover, we investigate the optimal combination of simple policy rules for interest rates and capital requirements. The optimal policy rules imply that the central bank should focus exclusively on price stability and the macroprudential policy-maker should react exclusively to changes in loan rate premia.

Household Credit, Global Financial Cycle, and Macroprudential Policies: Credit Register Evidence from an Emerging Country

We analyze the effects of macroprudential policies on local bank credit cycles and interactions with international financial conditions. For identification, we exploit the comprehensive credit register containing all bank loans to individuals in Romania, a small open economy subject to external shocks, and the period 2004-2012, which covers a full boom-bust credit cycle when a wide range of macroprudential measures were deployed. Although household leverage is known to be a key driver of financial crises, to our knowledge this is the first paper that employs a household credit register to study leverage and macroprudential policies over a full economic cycle. Our results show that tighter macroprudential conditions are associated with a significant decline in household credit, with substantially stronger effects for foreign currency (FX) loans than for local currency loans. The effects on FX loans are higher for: (i) ex-ante riskier borrowers proxied by higher debt-service-toincome ratios and (ii) banks with greater exposure to foreign funding. Moreover, tighter macroprudential policy has stronger dampening effects on FX lending when global risk appetite is high and foreign monetary policy is expansionary. Finally, quantitative effects are in general larger for borrower rather than lender macroprudential policies.

Household Credit, Global Financial Cycle, and Macroprudential Policies: Credit Register Evidence from an Emerging Country

We analyze the effects of macroprudential policies on local bank credit cycles and interactions with international financial conditions. For identification, we exploit the comprehensive credit register containing all bank loans to individuals in Romania, a small open economy subject to external shocks, and the period 2004-2012, which covers a full boom-bust credit cycle when a wide range of macroprudential measures were deployed. Although household leverage is known to be a key driver of financial crises, to our knowledge this is the first paper that employs a household credit register to study leverage and macroprudential policies over a full economic cycle. Our results show that tighter macroprudential conditions are associated with a significant decline in household credit, with substantially stronger effects for FX loans than for local currency loans. The effects on FX loans are higher for: (i) ex-ante riskier borrowers proxied by higher debt-service-to-income ratios and (ii) banks with greater exposure to foreign funding. Moreover, tighter macroprudential policy has stronger dampening effects on FX lending when global risk appetite is high and foreign monetary policy is expansionary. Finally, quantitative effects are in general larger for borrower rather than lender macroprudential policies. Overall, the results suggest that macroprudential policies are effective in mitigating bank risk-taking in household lending over the local bank credit and global financial cycles, and therefore have important implications for policy and bank risk management.

Household Credit, Global Financial Cycle, and Macroprudential Policies: Credit Register Evidence from an Emerging Country

We analyze the effects of macroprudential policies on local bank credit cycles and interactions with international financial conditions. For identification, we exploit the comprehensive credit register containing all bank loans to individuals in Romania, a small open economy subject to external shocks, and the period 2004-2012, which covers a full boom-bust credit cycle when a wide range of macroprudential measures were deployed. Although household leverage is known to be a key driver of financial crises, to our knowledge this is the first paper that employs a household credit register to study leverage and macroprudential policies over a full economic cycle. Our results show that tighter macroprudential conditions are associated with a significant decline in household credit, with substantially stronger effects for FX loans than for local currency loans. The effects on FX loans are higher for: (i) ex-ante riskier borrowers proxied by higher debt-service-to-income ratios and (ii) banks with greater exposure to foreign funding. Moreover, tighter macroprudential policy has stronger dampening effects on FX lending when global risk appetite is high and foreign monetary policy is expansionary. Finally, quantitative effects are in general larger for borrower rather than lender macroprudential policies. Overall, the results suggest that macroprudential policies are effective in mitigating bank risk-taking in household lending over the local bank credit and global financial cycles, and therefore have important implications for policy and bank risk management.

TRI-CYCLES ANALYSIS ON BANK PERFORMANCE: PANEL VAR APPROACH

The previous financial crisis has revealed the importance of risk in the financial and business cycle within the economy. This paper examines relationship among three cycles in the economy, namely (i) business cycle macro risk, (ii) credit cycle and (iii) risk cycle, and their impacts toward individual bank performance. We examine the responses of individual bank credit cycle and risk cycle toward a shock in business cycle macro risk and its consequence to the bank performance. We use Indonesian data for period of 2005q1 to 2014q4. We use unbalanced panel data of individual banks’ balance sheet with Panel Vector Autoregressive approach based on GMM style estimation by implementing PVAR package developed by Abrigo and Love (2015). The result shows dynamic relationship between business cycle macro risk and financial risk cycles. The study also observes prominent role of risk cycles in driving bank performance. We also show the existence of financial accelerator phenomenon in Indonesian banking system, in which financial cycles precede the business cycle macro risk.

Home, Safe Home: Cross-Country Monitoring Framework for Vulnerabilities in the Residential Real Estate Sector

This paper proposes a framework for monitoring vulnerabilities related to the residential real estate sector in a cross-country context. The framework might be useful for complementing or cross-checking signals available from existing approaches. It takes into account three dimensions of real estate sector vulnerabilities (i.e. valuation, household indebtedness and the bank credit cycle) and enables monitoring across countries in a simple and informative way. Indicators are derived from the early warning literature and policy publications. They are aggregated in a modelfree way to a vulnerability measure, explicitly capturing the level and the dynamics of vulnerabilities. The measure proves to be a significant predictor of historical real estate crises, with a better forecasting performance than the majority of advantageously in-sample calibrated model-based estimates. The monitoring framework allows for a simple and transparent analysis across different dimensions, provides a cross-check of consistency of signals from several indicators, and accounts for the developments in terms of the levels and dynamics. In view of its good forecasting performance, it is a useful complement of model-based toolkits for analysing vulnerabilities in the residential real estate sector.

Money Supply and Economic Activity in South Africa – the Relationship Updated To 2011

This paper reconsiders the relationship between measures of money and measures of economic activity in the South African economy and the role of the Reserve Bank in moderating South African economic cycles. By using data for the past twenty years, the earlier analysis is updated and reassessed so that it is possible to see if the fundamental relationships between money, credit and economic activity have changed and whether the role of the Reserve Bank in managing economic activity has become more pivotal and constructive. One important difference noted is that broadly defined money (M3) does better in explaining economic activity between 2000 and 2011 than narrowly defined money. The opposite is true for the earlier sub-periods. The paper utilises a model of the money supply process to explain why the relationship between narrowly and broadly defined money changed after the year 2000 with regulations that encouraged the banks to reduce their demands for cash leading to an increase in the money multiplier. The paper concludes that the ability of the SA Reserve Bank to moderate the money and bank credit cycles, utilising interest rates as the primary instrument of monetary policy, remains as elusive as ever.

Bank Credit Cycles

Private information about prospective borrowers produced by a bank can affect rival lenders due to a winner’s curse effect. Strategic interaction between banks with respect to the intensity of costly information production results in endogenous cycles, periodic credit crunches. Empirical tests are constructed based on parameterizing public information about relative bank performance that is at the root of banks’ beliefs about rival banks’ behavior. Consistent with the theory, we find that the relative performance of rival banks has predictive power for subsequent lending in the card market, where we can identify the main competitors. At the macroeconomic level, we show that the relative bank performance of commercial and industrial loans is an autonomous source of macroeconomic fluctuations. We also find that the relative bank performance is a priced risk factor for both banks and nonfinancial firms. The factor-coefficients for nonfinancial firms are decreasing with size.

Bank Credit Cycles

A bank determines whether potential borrowers are credit-worthy, that is, whether they meet the bank's or lending standards. In making this determination, each bank is in competition with other banks, but without knowing the competitor banks' standards. The resulting unique form of competition leads to endogenous cycles, periodic credit crunches. Empirical tests of this repeated bank lending game are constructed based on parameterizing public information about relative bank performance that is at the root of banks' beliefs about rival banks' lending standards. The relative performance of rival banks has predictive power for subsequent lending in the card market, where we can identify the main competitors. At the macroeconomic level, the relative bank performance of commercial and industrial loans is an autonomous source of macroeconomic fluctuations. In an asset pricing context, the relative bank performance is a priced risk factor for both banks and nonfinancial firms. The factor-coefficients for non-financial firms are decreasing with size, consistent with smaller firms being more bank-dependent.