IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfsres/v53y2018i1d10.1007_s10693-016-0262-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retail Bank Interest Margins in Low Interest Rate Environments

Author

Listed:
  • Jaakko Sääskilahti

    (University of Jyvaskyla)

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between market interest rates and retail bank interest margins. I allow for non-linearities, i.e., differences in these relationships with varying interest rate environments, which have particular implications for bank profitability and the interest rate channel of monetary policy in a low interest rate environment. I find that the interest rate spread between stocks of loans and deposits, as well as between new loans and deposits, are generally positively related to market interest rates, mainly because of highly rigid interest rates on current account deposits. In a low interest rate environment, the combination of increasing core deposit rate rigidity and variable rate loans strengthens the positive relationship between market interest rates and the interest rate spread between stocks of loans and deposits, which exerts pressure on bank profitability. The results for the interest rate spread between new loans and deposits indicate that banks react to increased deposit rate rigidity by significantly increasing spreads on new loans. Such a reaction affects the interest rate channel of monetary policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaakko Sääskilahti, 2018. "Retail Bank Interest Margins in Low Interest Rate Environments," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 53(1), pages 37-68, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfsres:v:53:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10693-016-0262-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10693-016-0262-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10693-016-0262-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10693-016-0262-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lepetit, Laetitia & Nys, Emmanuelle & Rous, Philippe & Tarazi, Amine, 2008. "The expansion of services in European banking: Implications for loan pricing and interest margins," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 2325-2335, November.
    2. Bos, J.W.B. & Kool, C.J.M., 2006. "Bank efficiency: The role of bank strategy and local market conditions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1953-1974, July.
    3. López-Espinosa, Germán & Moreno, Antonio & Pérez de Gracia, Fernando, 2011. "Banks' Net Interest Margin in the 2000s: A Macro-Accounting international perspective," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1214-1233, October.
    4. Dick van Dijk & Timo Terasvirta & Philip Hans Franses, 2002. "Smooth Transition Autoregressive Models — A Survey Of Recent Developments," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 1-47.
    5. González, Andrés & Teräsvirta, Timo & van Dijk, Dick & Yang, Yukai, 2005. "Panel Smooth Transition Regression Models," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 604, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 11 Oct 2017.
    6. Charles Kahn & George Pennacchi & Ben Sopranzetti, 1999. "Bank Deposit Rate Clustering: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2185-2214, December.
    7. Demirguc, Asli & Huizinga, Harry, 1999. "Determinants of Commercial Bank Interest Margins and Profitability: Some International Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 379-408, May.
    8. Reint Gropp & Christoffer Kok & Jung-Duk Lichtenberger, 2014. "The Dynamics of Bank Spreads and Financial Structure," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-53.
    9. Berlin, Mitchell & Mester, Loretta J, 1999. "Deposits and Relationship Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(3), pages 579-607.
    10. Hristov, Nikolay & Hülsewig, Oliver & Wollmershäuser, Timo, 2012. "Loan supply shocks during the financial crisis: Evidence for the Euro area," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 569-592.
    11. Degryse, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2007. "The impact of competition on bank orientation," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 399-424, July.
    12. Piergiorgio Alessandri & Benjamin D. Nelson, 2015. "Simple Banking: Profitability and the Yield Curve," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(1), pages 143-175, February.
    13. Borio, Claudio & Zhu, Haibin, 2012. "Capital regulation, risk-taking and monetary policy: A missing link in the transmission mechanism?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 236-251.
    14. Luc Laeven & Fabian Valencia, 2020. "Systemic Banking Crises Database II," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(2), pages 307-361, June.
    15. Flannery, Mark J, 1983. "Interest Rates and Bank Profitability: Additional Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 15(3), pages 355-362, August.
    16. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1992. "Some Evidence on the Empirical Significance of Credit Rationing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 1047-1077, October.
    17. Richard Sheehan, 2013. "Valuing Core Deposits," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 197-220, April.
    18. Ruchir Agarwal & Miles Kimball, 2015. "Breaking Through the Zero Lower Bound," IMF Working Papers 2015/224, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Claudio Borio & Leonardo Gambacorta & Boris Hofmann, 2017. "The influence of monetary policy on bank profitability," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 48-63, March.
    20. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre & Perez-Castrillo, David & Verdier, Thierry, 1995. "Spatial competition in the banking system: Localization, cross subsidies and the regulation of deposit rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 889-918, May.
    21. David Neumark & Steven A. Sharpe, 1992. "Market Structure and the Nature of Price Rigidity: Evidence from the Market for Consumer Deposits," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 657-680.
    22. Maudos, Joaquin & Fernandez de Guevara, Juan, 2004. "Factors explaining the interest margin in the banking sectors of the European Union," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2259-2281, September.
    23. Hyytinen, Ari & Toivanen, Otto, 2004. "Monitoring and market power in credit markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 269-288, February.
    24. Jiménez, Gabriel & Ongena, Steven & Peydró, José-Luis & Saurina, Jesús, 2012. "Credit Supply and Monetary Policy: Identifying the Bank Balance-Sheet Channel with Loan Applications," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 102(5), pages 2301-2326.
    25. Frederic Lambert & Mr. Kenichi Ueda, 2014. "The Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policies on Bank Soundness," IMF Working Papers 2014/152, International Monetary Fund.
    26. Saunders, Anthony & Schumacher, Liliana, 2000. "The determinants of bank interest rate margins: an international study," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 813-832, December.
    27. Krylova, Elizaveta & Darracq Pariès, Matthieu & Moccero, Diego & Marchini, Claudia, 2014. "The retail bank interest rate pass-through: The case of the euro area during the financial and sovereign debt crisis," Occasional Paper Series 155, European Central Bank.
    28. Kok, Christoffer & Werner, Thomas, 2006. "Bank interest rate pass-through in the euro area: a cross country comparison," Working Paper Series 580, European Central Bank.
    29. Gambacorta, Leonardo, 2008. "How do banks set interest rates?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 792-819, July.
    30. Terasvirta, Timo & Tjostheim, Dag & Granger, Clive W. J., 2010. "Modelling Nonlinear Economic Time Series," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199587155, Decembrie.
    31. Machauer, Achim & Weber, Martin, 1998. "Bank behavior based on internal credit ratings of borrowers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(10-11), pages 1355-1383, October.
    32. Hutchison, David E, 1995. "Retail Bank Deposit Pricing: An Intertemporal Asset Pricing Approach," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(1), pages 217-231, February.
    33. Carbo-Valverde, Santiago & Hannan, Timothy H. & Rodriguez-Fernandez, Francisco, 2011. "Exploiting old customers and attracting new ones: The case of bank deposit pricing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 903-915.
    34. Entrop, Oliver & Memmel, Christoph & Ruprecht, Benedikt & Wilkens, Marco, 2015. "Determinants of bank interest margins: Impact of maturity transformation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-19.
    35. De Graeve, Ferre & De Jonghe, Olivier & Vennet, Rudi Vander, 2007. "Competition, transmission and bank pricing policies: Evidence from Belgian loan and deposit markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 259-278, January.
    36. Ho, Thomas S. Y. & Saunders, Anthony, 1981. "The Determinants of Bank Interest Margins: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 581-600, November.
    37. Hannan, Timothy H & Berger, Allen N, 1991. "The Rigidity of Prices: Evidence from the Banking Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 938-945, September.
    38. Gabriel Jiménez & Steven Ongena & José‐Luis Peydró & Jesús Saurina, 2014. "Hazardous Times for Monetary Policy: What Do Twenty‐Three Million Bank Loans Say About the Effects of Monetary Policy on Credit Risk‐Taking?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(2), pages 463-505, March.
    39. Brock, Philip L. & Rojas Suarez, Liliana, 2000. "Understanding the behavior of bank spreads in Latin America," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 113-134, October.
    40. Anamaria Illes & Marco Lombardi & Paul Mizen, 2015. "Why did bank lending rates diverge from policy rates after the financial crisis?," BIS Working Papers 486, Bank for International Settlements.
    41. Hutchison, David E. & Pennacchi, George G., 1996. "Measuring Rents and Interest Rate Risk in Imperfect Financial Markets: The Case of Retail Bank Deposits," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 399-417, September.
    42. Beck, Thorsten & Hesse, Heiko, 2009. "Why are interest spreads so high in Uganda?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 192-204, March.
    43. Rocha, Manuel Duarte, 2012. "Interest rate pass-through in Portugal: Interactions, asymmetries and heterogeneities," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 64-80.
    44. Taylor Canann & Richard Evans, 2015. "Determinants of Short-term Lender Location and Interest Rates," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 48(3), pages 235-262, December.
    45. Hasan, Iftekhar & Jackowicz, Krzysztof & Kowalewski, Oskar & Kozlowski, Lukasz, 2014. "Bank Ownership Structure, SME Lending and Local Credit Markets," Working Papers 14-12, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    46. Leonardo Gambacorta & Anamaria Illes & Marco Jacopo Lombardi, 2014. "Has the transmission of policy rates to lending rates been impaired by the Global Financial Crisis?," BIS Working Papers 477, Bank for International Settlements.
    47. de Bondt, Gabe, 2002. "Retail bank interest rate pass-through: new evidence at the euro area level," Working Paper Series 136, European Central Bank.
    48. Fiordelisi, Franco & Mare, Davide Salvatore, 2014. "Competition and financial stability in European cooperative banks," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-16.
    49. Mr. Martin Cihak & Mr. Heiko Hesse, 2007. "Cooperative Banks and Financial Stability," IMF Working Papers 2007/002, International Monetary Fund.
    50. Anamaria Illes & Marco Jacopo Lombardi, 2013. "Interest rate pass-through since the financial crisis," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    51. Angbazo, Lazarus, 1997. "Commercial bank net interest margins, default risk, interest-rate risk, and off-balance sheet banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 55-87, January.
    52. Roger Aliaga‐Díaz & María Pía Olivero, 2011. "The Cyclicality Of Price‐Cost Margins In Banking: An Empirical Analysis Of Its Determinants," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(1), pages 26-46, January.
    53. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_022 is not listed on IDEAS
    54. Lapteacru, Ion, 2014. "Do more competitive banks have less market power? The evidence from Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 41-60.
    55. Laura Chiaramonte & Federica Poli & Marco Oriani, 2013. "On the Relationship between Bank Business Models and Financial Stability: Evidence from the Financial Crisis in OECD Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Joseph Falzon (ed.), Bank Stability, Sovereign Debt and Derivatives, chapter 1, pages 7-30, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beata Gavurova & Kristina Kocisova & Zoltan Rozsa & Martina Halaskova, 2019. "What Affects the Interest Rate on Deposit From Households?," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 15(2), pages 41-57.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Molyneux, Philip & Reghezza, Alessio & Xie, Ru, 2019. "Bank margins and profits in a world of negative rates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Philip Molyneux & Alessio Reghezza & Ru Xie, 2018. "Bank Profits and Margins in a World of Negative Rates," Working Papers 18001, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    3. Putkuri, Hanna, 2010. "Housing loan rate margins in Finland," Research Discussion Papers 10/2010, Bank of Finland.
    4. Putkuri, Hanna, 2010. "Housing loan rate margins in Finland," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2010, Bank of Finland.
    5. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2010_010 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Horváth, Roman & Podpiera, Anca, 2012. "Heterogeneity in bank pricing policies: The Czech evidence," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 87-108.
    7. Gabriele Angori & David Aristei & Manuela Gallo, 2019. "Determinants of Banks’ Net Interest Margin: Evidence from the Euro Area during the Crisis and Post-Crisis Period," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-20, July.
    8. Nguyen, Thach V.H. & Nguyen, Thai Vu Hong, 2022. "How do banks price liquidity? The role of market power," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Holton, Sarah & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza, 2015. "Jagged Cliffs and Stumbling Blocks: Interest Rate Pass-through Fragmentation during the Euro Area Crisis," Research Technical Papers 01/RT/15, Central Bank of Ireland.
    10. Entrop, Oliver & Memmel, Christoph & Ruprecht, Benedikt & Wilkens, Marco, 2015. "Determinants of bank interest margins: Impact of maturity transformation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-19.
    11. Bennouna, Hicham, 2019. "Interest rate pass-through in Morocco: Evidence from bank-level survey data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 142-157.
    12. Holton, Sarah & d’Acri, Costanza Rodriguez, 2015. "Jagged cliffs and stumbling blocks: interest rate pass-through fragmentation during the Euro area crisis," Working Paper Series 1850, European Central Bank.
    13. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Christoffer Kok Sørensen & Jacob A. Bikker & Adrian A.R.J.M. van Rixtel, 2013. "Impact of bank competition on the interest rate pass-through in the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(11), pages 1359-1380, April.
    14. Raja Almarzoqi & Sami Ben Naceur, 2015. "Determinants of Bank Interest Margins in the Caucasus and Central Asia," IMF Working Papers 2015/087, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Pierluigi Bologna, 2017. "Banks’ maturity transformation: risk, reward, and policy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1159, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Trinugroho, Irwan & Agusman, Agusman & Tarazi, Amine, 2014. "Why have bank interest margins been so high in Indonesia since the 1997/1998 financial crisis?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 139-158.
    17. Birchwood, Anthony & Brei, Michael & Noel, Dorian M., 2017. "Interest margins and bank regulation in Central America and the Caribbean," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 56-68.
    18. Claudio Borio & Leonardo Gambacorta & Boris Hofmann, 2017. "The influence of monetary policy on bank profitability," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 48-63, March.
    19. Andries, Natalia & Billon, Steve, 2016. "Retail bank interest rate pass-through in the euro area: An empirical survey," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 170-194.
    20. Md. Shahidul Islam & Shin-Ichi Nishiyama, 2020. "The Determinants of Net Interest Margins of Commercial Banks: Panel Evidence from China, India and Japan," Discussion Papers 2014, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    21. Anamaria Illes & Marco Lombardi & Paul Mizen, 2015. "Why did bank lending rates diverge from policy rates after the financial crisis?," BIS Working Papers 486, Bank for International Settlements.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retail banking; Bank interest margin; Low interest rate environment; Bank profitability; Interest rate channel of monetary policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfsres:v:53:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10693-016-0262-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.