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Loan Loss Provision: Some Empirical Evidence for Italian Banks

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  • Guglielmo Maria Caporale
  • Matteo Alessi
  • Stefano Di Colli
  • Juan Sergio Lopez

Abstract

This paper uses data from a panel of more than 400 Italian banks for the period 2001 – 2012 to examine the main determinants of loan loss provision (LLP), which are classified as either discretionary (income smoothing, capital management, signalling) or non-discretionary (related to the business cycle). The results suggest that LLP in Italian banks is driven mainly by non-discretionary components, especially during the recession of 2008-2012, and is consistent with a countercyclical behavior of LLP. Further, it is generally less pro–cyclical (although not during the recent economic crisis) in the case of local banks: since their loans are more collateralised, their behaviour is more strongly affected by supervisory activity, their initial coverage ratio being lower than for other banks.

Suggested Citation

  • Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Matteo Alessi & Stefano Di Colli & Juan Sergio Lopez, 2015. "Loan Loss Provision: Some Empirical Evidence for Italian Banks," CESifo Working Paper Series 5253, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5253
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

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    3. Gropp, Reint E. & Park, Kyounghoon, 2016. "To Separate or not to Separate Investment from Commercial Banking? An Empirical Analysis of Attention Distortion under Multiple Tasks," IWH Discussion Papers 2/2016, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    4. Tito Tomas Siueia & Jianling Wang, 2017. "Loan Loss Provisions, Income Smooth, Signaling, Capital Management and Pro-Cyclicality: Empirical Evidence from Mozambique¡¯s Commercial Banks," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(11), pages 48-63, November.
    5. Amina Malik & Haroon Aziz & Buerhan Saiti & Shahab Ud Din, 2021. "The Impact of Earnings variability and Regulatory Measures on Income Smoothing: Evidence from Panel Regression," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 10(1), pages 183-201.
    6. Ozili, Peterson K, 2018. "Banking Stability Determinants in Africa," MPRA Paper 101825, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    loan loss provision; bank lending; financial system cyclicality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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

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