IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bde/wpaper/0224.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are capital buffers pro-cyclical? Evidence from Spanish panel data

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Ayuso

    (Banco de España)

  • Daniel Pérez

    (Banco de España)

  • Jesús Saurina

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the relationship between the Spanish business cycle and the capital buffers held by Spanish commercial and savings banks. We build an incomplete panel of Spanish institutions from 1986 to 2000 –thus covering a complete business cycle– and estimate an equation for the behaviour of capital buffers that includes an indicator of the business cycle. Our findings are fairly robust and quite unequivocal. After controlling for other potential determinants of the surplus capital we find a robustly significant negative relationship between the business cycle and capital buffers. From a quantitative standpoint, an increase of 1 percentage point in GDP growth might reduce capital buffers by 17%. This relationship is, moreover, asymmetric, being closer during upturns. Accordingly, there is a case for taking into account the so-called pro-cyclicality problem in the final design of Basel II. Pillar 2 seems to be the right place to address the issue.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Ayuso & Daniel Pérez & Jesús Saurina, 2002. "Are capital buffers pro-cyclical? Evidence from Spanish panel data," Working Papers 0224, Banco de España.
  • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:0224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosTrabajo/02/Fic/dt0224e.pdf
    File Function: First version, October 2002
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William J. McNally, 1999. "Open Market Stock Repurchase Signaling," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 28(2), Summer.
    2. Claudio Borio & Craig Furfine & Philip Lowe, 2001. "Procyclicality of the financial system and financial stability: issues and policy options," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Marrying the macro- and micro-prudential dimensions of financial stability, volume 1, pages 1-57, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Wall, Larry D. & Peterson, David R., 1995. "Bank holding company capital targets in the early 1990s: The regulators versus the markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 563-574, June.
    4. Olivier Jean Blanchard & Stanley Fischer, 1989. "Lectures on Macroeconomics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262022834, December.
    5. Berger, Allen N, 1995. "The Relationship between Capital and Earnings in Banking," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(2), pages 432-456, May.
    6. Froot, Kenneth A. & Stein, Jeremy C., 1998. "Risk management, capital budgeting, and capital structure policy for financial institutions: an integrated approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 55-82, January.
    7. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    8. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Gorton, Gary & Rosen, Richard, 1995. "Corporate Control, Portfolio Choice, and the Decline of Banking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1377-1420, December.
    10. Estrella, Arturo, 2004. "The cyclical behavior of optimal bank capital," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1469-1498, June.
    11. Keeley, Michael C, 1990. "Deposit Insurance, Risk, and Market Power in Banking," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1183-1200, December.
    12. Campbell, Tim S., 1979. "Optimal Investment Financing Decisions and the Value of Confidentiality," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 913-924, December.
    13. Acharya, Sankarshan, 1996. "Charter value, minimum bank capital requirement and deposit insurance pricing in equilibrium," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 351-375, March.
    14. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1994. "Do Risk-Based Capital Allocate Bank Credit and Cause a "Credit Crunch"' in the United States?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 26(3), pages 585-628, August.
    15. Berger, Allen N. & Herring, Richard J. & Szego, Giorgio P., 1995. "The role of capital in financial institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 393-430, June.
    16. Winter Ralph A., 1994. "The Dynamics of Competitive Insurance Markets," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 379-415, September.
    17. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    18. Campbell, Tim S., 1979. "Abstract: Optimal Investment Financing Decisions and the Value of Confidentiality," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 669-669, November.
    19. Esty, Benjamin C., 1997. "Organizational form and risk taking in the savings and loan industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 25-55, April.
    20. Vicente Salas & Jesús Saurina, 2002. "Credit Risk in Two Institutional Regimes: Spanish Commercial and Savings Banks," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 22(3), pages 203-224, December.
    21. Saunders, Anthony & Strock, Elizabeth & Travlos, Nickolaos G, 1990. "Ownership Structure, Deregulation, and Bank Risk Taking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 643-654, June.
    22. Raghuram G. Rajan, 1994. "Why Bank Credit Policies Fluctuate: A Theory and Some Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(2), pages 399-441.
    23. Simon Kwan & Robert Eisenbeis, 1997. "Bank Risk, Capitalization, and Operating Efficiency," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 12(2), pages 117-131, October.
    24. C. H. Furfine, 2000. "Evidence on the response of US banks to changes in capital requirements," BIS Working Papers 88, Bank for International Settlements.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jokipii, Terhi & Milne, Alistair, 2008. "The cyclical behaviour of European bank capital buffers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1440-1451, August.
    2. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2006_017 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Jokipii, Terhi & Milne, Alistair, 2008. "The cyclical behaviour of European bank capital buffers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1440-1451, August.
    4. Ovi, Nafisa & Bose, Sudipta & Gunasekarage, Abeyratna & Shams, Syed, 2020. "Do the business cycle and revenue diversification matter for banks’ capital buffer and credit risk: Evidence from ASEAN banks," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    5. Gabriel Jiménez & Jesús Saurina, 2006. "Credit Cycles, Credit Risk, and Prudential Regulation," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 2(2), May.
    6. Estrella, Arturo, 2004. "The cyclical behavior of optimal bank capital," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1469-1498, June.
    7. Daniel Perez & Vicente Salas-Fumas & Jesus Saurina, 2008. "Earnings and Capital Management in Alternative Loan Loss Provision Regulatory Regimes," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 423-445.
    8. Cicchiello, Antonella Francesca & Cotugno, Matteo & Perdichizzi, Salvatore & Torluccio, Giuseppe, 2022. "Do capital buffers matter? Evidence from the stocks and flows of nonperforming loans," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Steven Ongena, 1999. "Lending Relationships, Bank Default and Economic Activity," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 257-280.
    10. Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & Zhang, Xiaoxiang & Wang, Chaoke, 2016. "Invisible hand discipline from informed trading: Does market discipline from trading affect bank capital structure?," MPRA Paper 76215, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Leonardo Gambacorta & Paolo Emilio Mistrulli, 2003. "Bank Capital and Lending Behaviour: Empirical Evidence for Italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 486, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    12. Garci­a-Marco, Teresa & Robles-Fernández, M. Dolores, 2008. "Risk-taking behaviour and ownership in the banking industry: The Spanish evidence," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 332-354.
    13. Jokipii, Terhi & Milne, Alistair, 2011. "Bank capital buffer and risk adjustment decisions," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 165-178, August.
    14. Khurram Iftikhar & Syed Faizan Iftikhar, 2018. "The impact of business cycle on capital buffer during the period of Basel-II and Basel-III: Evidence from the Pakistani banks," International Journal of Financial Engineering (IJFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(04), pages 1-20, December.
    15. Kevin T. Jacques & Lakshmi Balasubramanyan, 2011. "Risk Weights in Regulatory Capital Standards: Is It Necessary to 'Get It Right'?," NFI Working Papers 2011-WP-23, Indiana State University, Scott College of Business, Networks Financial Institute.
    16. Jacob A. Bikker & Paul A. J. Metzemakers, 2007. "Is Bank Capital Procyclical? A Cross-Country Analysis," Credit and Capital Markets, Credit and Capital Markets, vol. 40(2), pages 225-264.
    17. Haq, Mamiza & Faff, Robert & Seth, Rama & Mohanty, Sunil, 2014. "Disciplinary tools and bank risk exposure," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 37-64.
    18. Anachit Bagntasarian & Emmanuel Mamatzakis, 2019. "Testing for the underlying dynamics of bank capital buffer and performance nexus," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 347-380, February.
    19. Ben Naceur, Samy & Kandil, Magda, 2009. "The impact of capital requirements on banks' cost of intermediation and performance: The case of Egypt," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 70-89.
    20. Nier, Erlend & Baumann, Ursel, 2006. "Market discipline, disclosure and moral hazard in banking," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 332-361, July.
    21. de Bandt, Olivier & Camara, Boubacar & Maitre, Alexis & Pessarossi, Pierre, 2018. "Optimal capital, regulatory requirements and bank performance in times of crisis: Evidence from France," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 175-186.

    More about this item

    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:bde:wpaper:0224. 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: Ángel Rodríguez. Electronic Dissemination of Information Unit. Research Department. Banco de España (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdegves.html .

    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.