Foreign Bank Penetration Research Articles

Does foreign bank penetration affect the risk of domestic banks? Evidence from emerging economies

We investigate whether foreign bank penetration affects the risk of domestic banks in emerging economies. By using bank-level data from 35 markets during the period of 2000–2014, we find significant evidence that the risk of domestic banks increases with the presence of foreign banks in the host economy, and this finding is shown to be consistent in a series of robustness tests. We also find that the incidence of such effects is more pronounced for domestic banks which are less efficient and less based on traditional activities. Foreign banks exert more pronounced impacts on domestic banks’ risk when they enter the host market via M&A, as opposed to greenfield investments, and when they belong to foreign conglomerates which provide strong internal support.

Bank lending and bank relationships in China: guanxi or commercial?

PurposeChina as a main emerging and transition economy has since 2006 opened up its banking market to foreign competition. Thus far, the penetration of foreign banks has been only moderate with around 2 per cent market share of the total banking market, despite the widely held view that foreign banks operate at a higher level of efficiency and that Chinese state-owned banks (SOBs) operate at a lower level of efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between bank ownership and the lending behaviour and relationship banking that stems from the Chinese tradition of “guanxi”.Design/methodology/approachBased on three bank types the authors construct a model of the choice of bank type and show how that model can be estimated using a multinomial logit. The authors assume that firms choose a bank type as a function of firm characteristics (Berger et al., 2008; Ongena and Sendeniz-Yüncü, 2011), deal terms (Machauer and Weber, 2000; Ziane, 2003), and industry classification (Uchida et al., 2008; Ongena and Sendeniz-Yüncü, 2011).FindingsThis paper finds the existence of a close banking relationship of a “guanxi” type between SOBs and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This is shown up in the form of better deal terms for the SOE. In the case of foreign banks the authors find that a foreign bank-foreign owned enterprise relationship exists but this is based on risk quality and no advantages in deal terms, which suggest a more commercial-based relationship. The empirical findings are that transparent and high-quality firms are likely to engage with foreign banks, while state-owned firms are more likely to engage with SOBs.Originality/valueIn China, few studies have addressed the potentially important role of bank ownership on lending behaviour (e.g. Firth et al., 2008; Berger et al., 2009). The authors extend the analysis by distinguishing not only between foreign and domestic banks, but also between SOBs and other domestic banks. This research seeks to enhance the understanding of bank ownership, lending behaviour and relationship banking.

Foreign Penetration, Lending Behavior and Risk in Southeast Asian Banks: Does Bank Competition Matter?

This paper attempts to analyze the joint impact of foreign penetration and competition on financial intermediation and risk in banking. Our empirical results from a sample of commercial banks in ASEAN-5 over the 1999-2012 period suggest that banks in countries with higher foreign bank penetration exhibit higher loan growth and lower riskiness. However, the positive impact of foreign bank penetration at the country level on bank loan growth and stability only holds for banks operating in countries with higher competition in banking. Finally, this paper also highlights several policy implications to strengthen financial intermediation and bank stability in ASEAN-5.

Does Foreign Bank Penetration Affect the Risk of Domestic Banks? Evidence from Emerging Economies

We investigate whether foreign bank penetration affects the risk-taking of domestic banks in emerging economies. By using bank-level data from 35 markets during the period of 2000-2014, we find significant evidence that the riskiness of domestic banks increases with the presence of foreign banks, and this finding is shown to be consistent in a series of robustness examinations. We also explore various conditions for the heterogeneity of the nexus between foreign bank penetration and domestic banks’ risk-taking, including: (1) what types of domestic banks are affected more by the presence of foreign banks, and (2) what patterns of foreign penetration exert more pronounced impact.

Financial Stability in Europe: Banking and Sovereign Risk

We analyze the link between banking sector quality and sovereign risk in the whole European Union over 1999–2014. We employ four different indicators of sovereign risk (including market- and opinion-based assessments), a rich set of theoretically and empirically motivated banking sector characteristics, and a Bayesian inference in panel estimation as a methodology. We show that a higher proportion of non-performing loans is the single most influential sector-specific variable that is associated with increased sovereign risk. The sector’s depth provides mixed results. The stability (capital adequacy ratio) and size (TBA) of the industry are linked to lower sovereign risk in general. Foreign bank penetration and competition (a more diversified structure of the industry) are linked to lower sovereign risk. Our results also support the wake-up call hypothesis in that markets re-appraised a number of banking sector-related issues in the pricing of sovereign risk after the onset of the sovereign crisis in Europe.

Does Foreign Bank Penetration Affect the Risk of Domestic Banks? Evidence from Emerging Economies

We investigate whether foreign bank penetration affects the risk-taking of domestic banks in emerging economies. By using bank-level data from 35 markets during the period of 2000-2014, we find significant evidence that the riskiness of domestic banks increases with the presence of foreign banks, and this finding is shown to be consistent in a series of robustness examinations. We also explore various conditions for the heterogeneity of the nexus between foreign bank penetration and domestic banks’ risk-taking, including: (1) what types of domestic banks are affected more by the presence of foreign banks, and (2) what patterns of foreign penetration exert more pronounced impact.

How does banking sector globalization affect banking crisis?

A key feature of financial services liberalization is increasing banking-sector globalization.Using different measures to capture this phenomenon, the present study examines its impact on banking crisis for a dataset of 138 nations spanning the period 1998–2013, while controlling for other banking-industry specific, macroeconomic and external factors. Employing different econometric models and several robustness checks, I find greater banking sector globalization to reduce the occurrence of banking crisis. Moreover, greater bank asset concentration, diversification, credit flows, real interest rates, inflation rates, M2-to-foreign exchange reserves and nominal exchange rate depreciations significantly increase the likelihood of banking crisis, while higher bank profits, real GDP growth, economic development and economic freedom lower such chances. The results are further examined for nations across different levels of economic development and with different degrees of foreign bank penetration. The findings underscore that foreign bank presence provides greater financial stability in the banking industry of host nations.

Foreign banks in MENA countries: how important? How relevant?

Purpose – The role of foreign banks in impacting the behavior of domestic banks has been a relatively unaddressed topic in the literature. Employing bank-wise data on MENA countries during 2000-2012, the purpose of this paper is to examine how the behavior of foreign banks impact domestic bank performance. For this purpose, the authors focus on not only their profitability and stability, but also on broader numbers such as loan portfolio and funding costs. In addition, the authors also explore the impact of foreign banks on the growth of domestic economies and its implications for the allocation of capital and labor. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employ the dynamic panel data methodology as compared to alternate techniques owing to the ability of this technique to effectively address the endogeneity problem of some of the independent variables. Findings – The results suggest that foreign bank presence exerts significant spillover effects. At the same time, increased foreign banks appear to impel domestic banks to cut back lending. As regards its impact on growth, the results indicate that although labor does not exert any discernible impact on GDP growth, capital exerts a positive impact on output when foreign bank penetration is high, supportive of the real effects of foreign banks. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the early studies for MENA countries to examine this issue in a systematic manner. Most studies of this genre focus on a limited set of banks/countries, thereby limiting their empirical evidence. By focussing on an extended sample of MENA country banks covering an extended period that subsumes the financial crisis, the analysis is also able to shed light as to how foreign presence impacts domestic bank performance.

Foreign Bank Penetration and the Domestic Banking System: Empirical Evidence from Turkey Based on the Var Approach

I seek to investigate the relationship, if exits, between foreign bank penetration (FBP) and the determinants of bank performance, namely domestic bank assets (DB), domestic credit (CREDIT), and banking profitability (PRO) in Turkey using quarterly data from 1994Q1 to 2009Q4, while controlling for GDP and the event of the 2001 financial crisis. Using the Granger causality, impulse response function and variance decomposition, the short run dynamics are examined. The outcome of the Granger causality test indicates that there is unilateral causality, which runs from domestic bank assets to FBP at the 10% level. Moreover, I also find feedback causality between FBP and CREDIT at the 5% level. By employing impulse response functions, my findings reveal that rising foreign bank assets in Turkey tend to increase domestic bank assets and credit availability in short run, and vice versa. Surprisingly, no significant impact of FBP on profitability in the banking sector is observed.

A helping hand: examining the effect of foreign banks on the business environment

Purpose – The penetration of foreign banks into emerging markets has been linked with financial sector deepening and expansion of credit. However, there is little research into the interaction of financial sector institutions with broader transition and development dynamics. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the presence of foreign financial institutions helped to shape a better business environment over the long-run in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use aggregate, country-level annual data for 107 developed and emerging market countries over a shifting 30-year time span (1983-2012). The authors use Prais-Winsten and System-GMM techniques on stationary variables to highlight linkages between foreign banks and the overall business environment. Where data were found to be non-stationary, the authors applied panel cointegration approaches, including Granger Causality and full-modified OLS, to research the same relationship. Findings – The results show that foreign bank entry in emerging markets has had a positive effect in the broader business environment, with the biggest effects on legal protection, competitiveness, and time to import/export. Research limitations/implications – This paper does not consider the broader effects of foreign bank entry on competition within emerging markets, an area that the authors are considering as fruitful for future research. Originality/value – The issue of financial sector impact on broader business environment issues has not been studied in the extant literature. Moreover, this study makes an important contribution for policymakers who are grappling with issues related to financial sector regulation in the post-global financial crisis world.

Liberalization, Post-Crisis Restructuring and Internationalization in Turkish Banking

This study provides a historical review of the transformation of the Turkish banking sector since the initiation of the financial liberalization program in 1980. It demonstrates the roles of macroeconomic, institutional and firm-level factors in the evolution of market and ownership structures as well as the performance of the sector. It focuses on the penetration of foreign banks in the Turkish market and the more recently observed entries of Turkish banks into neighboring countries. It contributes to the literature by illustrating how the domestic macroeconomic and institutional environment together with international banking circumstances affect the processes and outcomes of internationalization in emerging banking markets.

The impact of foreign bank penetration on the domestic banking sector: new evidence from China

This study proposes a foreign bank branch networks index (FBBNI) to capture bank-level exposure to competition from foreign banks in terms of geographical proximity. The index takes account of the rapidly expanding branch networks of both foreign and domestic banks in China. Based on data from a sample of three types of Chinese commercial banks from 2002 to 2011, we find that exposure to the branch networks of foreign banks is associated with improved profitability at domestic banks, higher efficiency, and increased non-interest income, consistent with knowledge transfer from foreign banks. These relationships are most pronounced for joint-stock domestic banks presumably because their ownership structure fosters knowledge transfer.

Monetary Policy Transmission in Emerging Asia: The Role of Banks and the Effects of Financial Globalization

Given the heavy reliance on bank lending as the main source of financing in most Asian economies, banks could potentially play a pivotal role in monetary policy transmission. However, we find that Asia?s bank lending channel or, more broadly, credit channel of domestic monetary policy is not very strong at the aggregate level. Using bank-level data for nine Asian economies during 2000?2013, we show that heterogeneity of bank characteristics (e.g., ownership type, financial position), degree of foreign bank penetration of the domestic banking sector, and global financial conditions all have a bearing on the response of domestic credit to changes in domestic monetary policy, and may account for the apparently weak credit channel at aggregate level.

Monetary Policy Transmission in Emerging Asia: The Role of Banks and the Effects of Financial Globalization

Given the heavy reliance on bank lending as the main source of financing in most Asian economies, banks could potentially play a pivotal role in monetary policy transmission. However, we find that Asia’s bank lending channel or, more broadly, credit channel of domestic monetary policy is not very strong at the aggregate level. Using bank-level data for nine Asian economies during 2000–2013, we show that heterogeneity of bank characteristics (e.g., ownership type, financial position), degree of foreign bank penetration of the domestic banking sector, and global financial conditions all have a bearing on the response of domestic credit to changes in domestic monetary policy, and may account for the apparently weak credit channel at aggregate level.

The role of foreign banks in monetary policy transmission: Evidence from Asia during the crisis of 2008–9

Since the 1997–8 Asian financial crisis, the level of foreign bank penetration has increased steadily in Asian banking markets. This paper examines the impact of foreign banks on the monetary policy transmission mechanism in emerging Asian economies during the period from 2000 to 2009, with a specific focus on the global financial crisis of 2008–9. We present consistent evidence that, on the whole, an increase in foreign bank penetration weakened the effectiveness of the monetary policy transmission mechanism in the host emerging Asian economies during crisis periods. We also investigate various conditions and environments, including the severity of shocks upon parent banks in the global crisis, the dependence of parent banks on the wholesale funding market, the country of origin of foreign banks, and entry modes, under which the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission is reduced more severely due to the increasing presence of foreign banks in the emerging Asian banking markets.

Transfer of reputation: Multinational banks and perceived creditworthiness of transition countries

ABSTRACTHow do international investors evaluate sovereign borrowers whose histories and institutions are too new or weak to send strong signals about their creditworthiness? In this paper, I suggest that the perceived creditworthiness of many transition countries’ governments rests on a ‘transfer’ of good reputation from prestigious multinational banks, as foreign direct investors. The entry of reputable foreign banks into a transition country signals to international financial markets about the financial strength of that host economy. It also involves the transfer of the status of lender of last resort to the foreign parent bank. Foreign bank penetration can thus create optimistic expectations about a host country's capacity to service its sovereign debt. Using panel data for 23 transition economies during the period of 1996–2009, my empirical results provide support for the argument stressing the exogenous role of foreign financiers as enhancers of the credibility of host country governments. The results are robust to instrumental variable analysis and the inclusion of number of controls for alternative determinants of investors' perceptions of country risk. This proposition is further backed by evidence from three transition countries: Hungary, Estonia and Ukraine.

Foreign bank entry in South East Asia

This paper examines the determinants of foreign bank entry in South East Asian countries after significant policy changes following the regional financial crisis in 1997/1998. The results show that manufacturing FDI and bilateral trade exert weak impacts on the decision of entry by foreign banks, providing little evidence for the argument that banks follow their home customers abroad. In contrast, local profit opportunities appear to be the prominent factor attracting foreign bank penetration in South East Asia. The results are robust to different modelling techniques.

These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System

In 1997, the Mexican government reversed long-standing policies and allowed foreign banks to purchase Mexico's largest commercial banks and relaxed restrictions on the founding of new, foreign-owned banks. The result has been a dramatic shift in the ownership structure of Mexico's banks. For instance, while in 1991 only one percent of bank assets in Mexico were foreign owned, today they control 74 percent of assets. In no other country in the world has the penetration of foreign banks been as rapid or as far-reaching as in Mexico. In this work we examine some of the important implications of foreign bank entry for social welfare in Mexico. Did liberalization lead to an (or decrease) in the supply of credit? Did liberalization lead to an (or decrease) in the cost of credit? Did liberalization lead to an (or decrease) in the stability of the banking system? In order to answer these questions, we must first ask, increase (or decrease), measured on what basis? There are, in fact, two distinct conceptual frameworks through which one can assess the impact of foreign bank entry. One is concerned with measuring the short-run impacts of foreign entry on credit abundance, pricing, and observable stability using reduced form regressions. The other is an institutional economics conception of how to measure performance. It is focused on understanding whether foreign entry gave rise to difficult-to-reverse changes in the political economy of bank regulation, which will affect competition and stability in the long term, outside the period that may be observed empirically. We employ both conceptions in this paper.

The Impact of Foreign Bank Penetration on the Domestic Banking Sector: New Evidence from China

This study proposes a Foreign Banks’ Branch Networks Index (FBBNI) to capture bank-level exposure to competition from foreign banks in terms of geographical proximity. The index takes account the rapidly expanded branch networks of both foreign and domestic banks in China and therefore serves as a better proxy to study the impact of foreign bank penetration on the performance of domestic banks. Based on a sample of three types of Chinese commercial banks from 2002 to 2011, we find that the expanded branch networks of foreign banks help to stimulate the improved profitability of domestic banks, as a result of higher achieved efficiency, and the increased non-interest income of domestic banks, as a result of knowledge transformation from foreign banks. These positive relationships are more pronounced among joint-stock banks (JCBs). Finally, foreign bank penetration has been found to play a significant role in stimulating the risk-management improvement of domestic banks, especially these with foreign strategic investors.

The Role of Foreign Banks in Monetary Policy Transmission: Evidence from Asia During the Crisis of 2008-9

Since the 1997-8 Asian financial crisis, the level of foreign bank penetration has increased steadily in Asian banking markets. This paper examines the impact of foreign banks on the monetary policy transmission mechanism in emerging Asian economies during the period from 2000 to 2009, with a specific focus on the global financial crisis of 2008-9. We present consistent evidence that on the whole, an increase in foreign bank penetration weakened the effectiveness of the monetary policy transmission mechanism in the host emerging Asian countries during crisis periods. We also investigate various conditions and environments, including the type of monetary policy shocks, the severity of shocks upon parent banks in global crisis, the dependence of parent banks on the wholesale funding market, country of origin of foreign banks, and entry modes, under which the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission is reduced more severely due to the increasing presence of foreign banks in the emerging Asian banking markets.