IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v154y2023ics0378426623001358.html

Countercyclical capital buffers and credit supply: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Dursun-de Neef, H． Özlem
  • Schandlbauer, Alexander
  • Wittig, Colin

Abstract

This paper examines how European banks adjusted their lending subsequent to the release of the countercyclical capital buffers (CCyB) during the COVID-19 pandemic. At its onset in 2020Q1, being exposed to a higher ex-ante countercyclical capital buffer led to a reduction in banks’ lending. Yet the relief of the CCyBs removed this negative effect from 2020Q2 onwards. We find that the reduction in CCyBs led to a significant relative increase in the average bank’s lending by about 5.6 percentage points of their total assets. This increase happened mainly in retail mortgage loans and was stronger for poorly-capitalized banks. These results imply that the release of the CCyBs was effective in promoting bank lending during the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Dursun-de Neef, H． Özlem & Schandlbauer, Alexander & Wittig, Colin, 2023. "Countercyclical capital buffers and credit supply: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:154:y:2023:i:c:s0378426623001358
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2023.106930
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426623001358
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2023.106930?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Couaillier, Cyril & Lo Duca, Marco & Reghezza, Alessio & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Scopelliti, Alessandro, 2021. "Bank capital buffers and lending in the euro area during the pandemic," Financial Stability Review, European Central Bank, vol. 2.
    2. Lei Li & Philip E Strahan & Song Zhang, 2020. "Banks as Lenders of First Resort: Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 472-500.
    3. Laeven, Luc & Majnoni, Giovanni, 2003. "Loan loss provisioning and economic slowdowns: too much, too late?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 178-197, April.
    4. Diogo Serra & Lucas Avezum, 2021. "Assessment of the effectiveness of the macroprudential measures implemented in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic," Working Papers w202107, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    5. De Marco, Filippo & Kneer, Christiane & Wieladek, Tomasz, 2021. "The real effects of capital requirements and monetary policy: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    6. Gabriel Jiménez & Steven Ongena & José-Luis Peydró & Jesús Saurina, 2017. "Macroprudential Policy, Countercyclical Bank Capital Buffers, and Credit Supply: Evidence from the Spanish Dynamic Provisioning Experiments," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(6), pages 2126-2177.
    7. Reint Gropp & Thomas Mosk & Steven Ongena & Carlo Wix, 2019. "Banks Response to Higher Capital Requirements: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 266-299.
    8. H Özlem Dursun-de Neef, 2019. "The Transmission of Bank Liquidity Shocks: Evidence from House Prices," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(3), pages 629-658.
    9. Lei Li & Philip E. Strahan & Song Zhang, 2020. "Banks as Lenders of First Resort: Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis," NBER Working Papers 27256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Duncan, Elizabeth & Horvath, Akos & Iercosan, Diana & Loudis, Bert & Maddrey, Alice & Martinez, Francis & Mooney, Timothy & Ranish, Ben & Wang, Ke & Warusawitharana, Missaka & Wix, Carlo, 2022. "COVID-19 as a stress test: Assessing the bank regulatory framework," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    11. Henri Fraisse & Mathias Lé & David Thesmar, 2020. "The Real Effects of Bank Capital Requirements," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 5-23, January.
    12. Christoph Basten, 2020. "Higher Bank Capital Requirements and Mortgage Pricing: Evidence from the Counter-Cyclical Capital Buffer," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(2), pages 453-495.
    13. Rafael Repullo & Javier Suarez, 2013. "The Procyclical Effects of Bank Capital Regulation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 452-490.
    14. Özlem Dursun-de Neef, H. & Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2021. "COVID-19 and lending responses of European banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    15. Viral V Acharya & Sascha Steffen, 2020. "The Risk of Being a Fallen Angel and the Corporate Dash for Cash in the Midst of COVID," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 430-471.
    16. Kick, Thomas & Celerier, Claire & Ongena, Steven, 2017. "Changes in the Cost of Bank Equity and the Supply of Bank Credit," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168164, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Auer, Raphael & Matyunina, Alexandra & Ongena, Steven, 2022. "The countercyclical capital buffer and the composition of bank lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    18. Kim, Dohan & Sohn, Wook, 2017. "The effect of bank capital on lending: Does liquidity matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 95-107.
    19. De Jonghe, Olivier & Dewachter, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2020. "Bank capital (requirements) and credit supply: Evidence from pillar 2 decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    20. Stefanie Behncke, 2023. "Effects of Macroprudential Policies on Bank Lending and Credit Risks," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 175-199, April.
    21. Ben Naceur, S. & Marton, Katherin & Roulet, Caroline, 2018. "Basel III and bank-lending: Evidence from the United States and Europe," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-27.
    22. Berger, Allen N. & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli, 2021. "Banking research in the time of COVID-19," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    23. Mr. Divya Kirti & Yang Liu & Soledad Martinez Peria & Ms. Prachi Mishra & Jan Strasky, 2022. "Tracking Economic and Financial Policies During COVID-19: An Announcement-Level Database," IMF Working Papers 2022/114, International Monetary Fund.
    24. Illueca, Manuel & Norden, Lars & Pacelli, Joseph & Udell, Gregory F., 2022. "Countercyclical prudential buffers and bank risk-taking," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    25. Dursun-de Neef, H. Özlem & Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2022. "COVID-19, bank deposits, and lending," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 20-33.
    26. Carlson, Mark & Shan, Hui & Warusawitharana, Missaka, 2013. "Capital ratios and bank lending: A matched bank approach," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 663-687.
    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. Couaillier, Cyril & Reghezza, Alessio & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Scopelliti, Alessandro, 2025. "How to release capital requirements in an economic downturn? Evidence from euro area credit register," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. De Lorenzo Buratta, Ivan & Pinheiro, Tiago, 2025. "Sovereign loan guarantees and financial stability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Enkhbaatar Oyungerel & Urangoo Erdenebileg, 2025. "Technical Development of Countercyclical Capital Buffer Implementation in Mongolia's Banking Sector," IHEID Working Papers 10-2025, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    4. Behn, Markus & Lo Duca, Marco & Perales, Cristian, 2026. "How do macroprudential measures affect mortgage lending standards? Evidence from the ECB’s Bank Lending Survey," Working Paper Series 3190, European Central Bank.
    5. Kerola, Eeva & Norring, Anni, 2025. "Effect of the countercyclical capital buffer on firm loans: Evidence from Germany," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 8/2025, Bank of Finland.
    6. Salvatore Federico & Andrea Modena & Luca Regis, 2025. "Coordinating Bank Dividend and Capital Regulation," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 746 JEL Classification: C, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    7. Jude, Cristina & Levieuge, Grégory, 2025. "Doubling down: The synergy of CCyB release and monetary policy easing," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    8. Nistor, Simona & Fărcaș, Ioana Georgiana, 2025. "Does national culture affect macroprudential policy? An international investigation of regulatory behavior on macroprudential interventions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    9. Yuan, Xiaohui, 2025. "Cavalry or locust? Foreign ownership heterogeneity and bank lending cyclicality," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Sanders, Emiel & Simoens, Mathieu & Vander Vennet, Rudi, 2024. "Curse and blessing: The effect of the dividend ban on euro area bank valuations and syndicated lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    11. Kara, Alper & Ongena, Steven & Yildiz, Yilmaz, 2024. "Does being a responsible bank pay off? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    12. Manuel A. Muñoz & Frank Smets, 2025. "The positive neutral countercyclical capital buffer," Bank of England working papers 1128, Bank of England.
    13. Rendón, Juan F. & Cortés, Lina M. & Perote, Javier, 2024. "Basel III countercyclical bank capital buffer estimation and its relation to monetary policy," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    14. Salvatore Federico & Andrea Modena & Luca Regis, 2025. "The Power of Faith: Effects of an Imam-led Information Campaign on Labor Supply and Social Interactions," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_622, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    15. Buchholz, Manuel & Löffler, Axel & Sigel, Patrick, 2025. "Do capital requirements and their international differences affect banks' profitability?," Discussion Papers 31/2025, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    16. Huang, Chao & Moreira, Fernando, 2024. "Liquidity regulation, bank capital ratio, and interbank rate," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    17. Wahyu Ario Pratomo & Ari Warokka & Rizky Yudaruddin & Aina Zatil Aqmar, 2025. "Economic Freedom and Banking Performance: Capital Buffers as the Key to Profitability and Stability in Liberalized Markets," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-25, September.
    18. Maciej Ryczkowski, 2026. "Zygmunt Narski, Milton Friedman, and modern monetary policy," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-25, February.

    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. Couaillier, Cyril & Reghezza, Alessio & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Scopelliti, Alessandro, 2025. "How to release capital requirements in an economic downturn? Evidence from euro area credit register," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Retselisitsoe I. Thamae & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2022. "The impact of bank regulation on bank lending: a review of international literature," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(4), pages 405-418, December.
    3. Duncan, Elizabeth & Horvath, Akos & Iercosan, Diana & Loudis, Bert & Maddrey, Alice & Martinez, Francis & Mooney, Timothy & Ranish, Ben & Wang, Ke & Warusawitharana, Missaka & Wix, Carlo, 2022. "COVID-19 as a stress test: Assessing the bank regulatory framework," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Dursun-de Neef, H. Özlem & Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2022. "COVID-19, bank deposits, and lending," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 20-33.
    5. Auer, Raphael & Matyunina, Alexandra & Ongena, Steven, 2022. "The countercyclical capital buffer and the composition of bank lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Imbierowicz, Björn & Loeffler, Axel & Ongena, Steven & Vogel, Ursula, 2026. "How CCyBs travel – Internal capital markets & domestic borrowing," Discussion Papers 12/2026, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    7. Cappelletti, Giuseppe & Reghezza, Alessio & Rodríguez d'Acri, Costanza & Spaggiari, Martina, 2022. "Compositional effects of bank capital buffers and interactions with monetary policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    8. Tracey, Belinda & Sowerbutts, Rhiannon, 2025. "How do banks respond to misconduct costs?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    9. Jude, Cristina & Levieuge, Grégory, 2025. "Doubling down: The synergy of CCyB release and monetary policy easing," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Bank for International Settlements, 2025. "Bank capital and balance sheet management during times of distress: international evidence (July 2025, revised August 2025)," BCBS Working Papers 46, Bank for International Settlements.
    11. Chen, David Xiao & Friedrich, Christian, 2023. "The countercyclical capital buffer and international bank lending: Evidence from Canada," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    12. Guo, Wen-Chung & Tseng, Ping-Lun, 2023. "COVID-19, bank risk, and capital regulation: The aggregate shock and social distancing," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 155-173.
    13. Viral V. Acharya & Katharina Bergant & Matteo Crosignani & Tim Eisert & Fergal Mccann, 2022. "The Anatomy of the Transmission of Macroprudential Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(5), pages 2533-2575, October.
    14. Cyril Couaillier & Marco Lo Duca & Alessio Reghezza & Costanza Rodriguez D'Acri, 2025. "Caution: Do Not Cross! Distance to Regulatory Capital Buffers and Corporate Lending in a Downturn," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 57(4), pages 833-862, June.
    15. Silva, Thiago Christiano & de Souza, Sergio Rubens Stancato & Guerra, Solange Maria & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2023. "COVID-19 and bank branch lending: The moderating effect of digitalization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    16. Simona Malovaná & Dominika Ehrenbergerová, 2022. "The effect of higher capital requirements on bank lending: the capital surplus matters," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 793-832, August.
    17. repec:wbk:wbrwps:10270 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Miguel, Faruk & Pedraza, Alvaro & Ruiz-Ortega, Claudia, 2024. "Climate-change regulations: Bank lending and real effects," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    19. Dia, Enzo & VanHoose, David, 2023. "Macroprudential regulatory policies with a dominant-bank oligopoly and fringe banks," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    20. Cappelletti, Giuseppe & Ponte Marques, Aurea & Varraso, Paolo, 2024. "Impact of higher capital buffers on banks’ lending and risk-taking in the short- and medium-term: Evidence from the euro area experiments," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    21. Cappelletti, Giuseppe & Reghezza, Alessio & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Spaggiari, Martina, 2020. "Compositional effects of O-SII capital buffers and the role of monetary policy," Working Paper Series 2440, European Central Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers

    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:eee:jbfina:v:154:y:2023:i:c:s0378426623001358. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.