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Did QE lead banks to relax their lending standards? Evidence from the Federal Reserve’s LSAPs

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  • Kurtzman, Robert
  • Luck, Stephan
  • Zimmermann, Tom

Abstract

Using confidential loan officer survey data on lending standards and internal risk ratings on loans, we document an effect of large-scale asset purchase programs (LSAPs) on lending standards and risk-taking. We exploit cross-sectional variation in banks’ holdings of mortgage-backed securities to show that the first and third round of quantitative easing (QE1 and QE3) significantly lowered lending standards and increased loan risk characteristics. The magnitude of the effects is about the same in QE1 and QE3, and is comparable to the effect of a one percentage point decrease in the Fed funds target rate.

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  • Kurtzman, Robert & Luck, Stephan & Zimmermann, Tom, 2022. "Did QE lead banks to relax their lending standards? Evidence from the Federal Reserve’s LSAPs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:138:y:2022:i:c:s0378426618301778
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2018.08.009
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    Cited by:

    1. Berrospide, Jose M., 2022. "IFABS 2017: Towards an Integrated View of Financial Regulation: Key Lessons from the Crisis and Future Challenges," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Dario Caldara & Etienne Gagnon & Enrique Martínez García & Christopher J. Neely, 2021. "Monetary Policy and Economic Performance Since the Financial Crisis," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 103(4), pages 425-460, October.
    3. Robert Kurtzman & David Zeke, 2020. "Misallocation Costs of Digging Deeper into the Central Bank Toolkit," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 38, pages 94-126, October.
    4. Luck, Stephan & Zimmermann, Tom, 2020. "Employment effects of unconventional monetary policy: Evidence from QE," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(3), pages 678-703.
    5. Tischer, Johannes, 2018. "Quantitative easing, portfolio rebalancing and credit growth: Micro evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers 20/2018, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    6. Óscar Arce & Miguel García-Posada & Sergio Mayordomo & Steven Ongena, 2018. "Adapting lending policies in a “negative-for-long” scenario (Updated October 2020)," Working Papers 1832, Banco de España, revised Oct 2020.
    7. Bednarek, Peter & Dinger, Valeriya & Kaat, Daniel Marcel te & Westernhagen, Natalja von, 2021. "To whom do banks channel central bank funds?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    8. Lucas Hafemann & Peter Tillmann, 2021. "Lending Standards and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Loan Survey Releases," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202131, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    9. John Thornton & Caterina Di Tommaso, 2021. "The effect of non‐performing loans on credit expansion: Do capital and profitability matter? Evidence from European banks," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 4822-4839, July.
    10. Miller, Sam & Wanengkirtyo, Boromeus, 2020. "Liquidity and monetary transmission: a quasi-experimental approach," Bank of England working papers 891, Bank of England.
    11. Byrne, David & Kelly, Robert, 2019. "Monetary policy expectations and risk-taking among U.S. banks," Research Technical Papers 6/RT/19, Central Bank of Ireland.
    12. Mark A. Carlson & Stefania D'Amico & Cristina Fuentes-Albero & Bernd Schlusche & Paul R. Wood, 2020. "Issues in the Use of the Balance Sheet Tool," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2020-071, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Goetz, Martin, 2019. "Financing conditions and toxic emissions," SAFE Working Paper Series 254, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    14. Matthew Schaffer & Nimrod Segev, 2023. "Quantitative Easing, Bank Lending, and Aggregate Fluctuations," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2023.01, Bank of Israel.
    15. Kenneth N. Kuttner, 2018. "Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and Beyond," Department of Economics Working Papers 2018-04, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    16. Andrea Landi, Alex Sclip, Valeria Venturelli, 2019. "The effect of the Fed zero-lower bound announcementon bank profitability and diversification," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0079, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    17. Bednarek, Peter & Dinger, Valeriya & te Kaat, Daniel Marcel & von Westernhagen, Natalja, 2020. "Central bank funding and credit risk-taking," Discussion Papers 36/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank risk taking; Bank lending standards; Unconventional monetary policy; Quantitative easing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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