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Banks and capital requirements: evidence from countercyclical buffers

Author

Listed:
  • Iñaki Aldasoro
  • Andreas Barth
  • Laura Comino Suarez
  • Riccardo Reale

Abstract

When capital requirements rise, banks can raise equity or reduce risk-weighted assets, typically by cutting lending. We show they also use credit default swaps (CDS). Linking EU trade-repository CDS data to syndicated loans for November 2017 to April 2024, we document that banks significantly increase CDS hedging on loans to firms in countries that raise their countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB). Our identification exploits within-bank comparisons of hedging for similar borrowers across countries with different CCyB rates. A 1 percentage point increase in the CCyB reduces the uninsured share of a loan by about 53 percentage points, with the strongest effects for banks most exposed to the buffer-raising country. Eligible credit risk transfer via CDS thus emerges as a first-order channel through which banks accommodate tighter capital requirements, potentially attenuating macroprudential policy transmission.

Suggested Citation

  • Iñaki Aldasoro & Andreas Barth & Laura Comino Suarez & Riccardo Reale, 2026. "Banks and capital requirements: evidence from countercyclical buffers," BIS Working Papers 1323, Bank for International Settlements.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:1323
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    JEL classification:

    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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