Macroeconomic and sectoral specific determinants of bank levies’ inflows in European Union

The main objective of the article is to determine the factors affecting the level of inflows from bank taxes and bank fees (understood as the burden allocated to a stabilisation fund), together referred to as bank levies. Seven groups of explanatory variables are assigned to macroeconomic, sectoral and social factors. Using the panel regression approach and data from 13 EU countries over the period 2011–2019, the authors proved that they are both of a macroeconomic nature (budget deficit, annual net earnings and consumption expenditure of households as a percentage of GDP) and specific for banking sector – the size of the banking sector measured by total liabilities and banks’ profitability reflected by profit (loss) before tax from continuing operations. This study is the first to test a broad spectrum of 40 potential determinants of bank levy revenues, representing clusters of macroeconomic, sectoral and social factors. The conclusions obtained can be useful primarily for governments, which on the basis of forecasts of macroeconomic aggregates and the size of the banking sector can produce a projection of bank levy revenues.