IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/chf/rpseri/rp2259.html

The Disciplining Effect of Supervisory Scrutiny in the EU-Wide Stress Test

Author

Listed:
  • Cosimo Pancaro

    (European Central Bank (ECB))

  • Christoffer Kok

    (European Central Bank (ECB))

  • Carola Müller

    (Center for Latin American Monetary Studies – CEMLA; Halle Institute for Economic Research)

  • Steven Ongena

    (University of Zurich - Department of Banking and Finance; Swiss Finance Institute; KU Leuven; NTNU Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR))

Abstract

Relying on confidential supervisory data related to the 2016 EU-wide stress test, this paper presents novel empirical evidence that supervisory scrutiny associated to stress testing has a disciplining effect on bank risk. We find that banks that participated in the 2016 EU-wide stress test subsequently reduced their credit risk relative to banks that were not part of this exercise. Relying on new metrics for supervisory scrutiny that measure the quantity, potential impact, and duration of interactions between banks and supervisors during the stress test, we find that the disciplining effect is stronger for banks subject to more intrusive supervisory scrutiny during the exercise. We also find that a strong risk management culture is a prerequisite for the supervisory scrutiny to be effective. Finally, we show that a similar disciplining effect is not exerted neither by higher capital charges nor by more transparency and related market discipline induced by the stress test.

Suggested Citation

  • Cosimo Pancaro & Christoffer Kok & Carola Müller & Steven Ongena, 2022. "The Disciplining Effect of Supervisory Scrutiny in the EU-Wide Stress Test," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 22-59, Swiss Finance Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2259
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4179529
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hobelsberger, Karin & Kok, Christoffer & Mongelli, Francesco Paolo, 2022. "A tale of three crises: synergies between ECB tasks," Occasional Paper Series 305, European Central Bank.
    2. Andrea Bellucci & Gianluca Gucciardi, 2024. "A Turning Point For Banking: Unraveling The Changing Landscape Of Banking Activity In Europe Since The Covid-19 Pandemic," Journal of Financial Management, Markets and Institutions (JFMMI), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(02), pages 1-38, December.
    3. Hans Degryse & Cédric Huylebroek & Bernardus F Nazar Van Doornik, 2025. "The disciplining effect of bank supervision: evidence from SupTech," BIS Working Papers 1256, Bank for International Settlements.
    4. Borsuk, Marcin & Kowalewski, Oskar & Qi, Jianping, 2023. "The dark side of bank taxes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    5. Durrani, Agha & Ongena, Steven & Ponte Marques, Aurea, 2024. "Decoding market reactions: The certification role of EU-wide stress tests," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Durrani, Agha & Ongena, Steven & Ponte Marques, Aurea, 2022. "The certification role of the EU-wide stress testing exercises in the stock market. What can we learn from the stress tests (2014-2021)?," Working Paper Series 2711, European Central Bank.
    7. Budnik, Katarzyna & Ponte Marques, Aurea & Giglio, Carla & Grassi, Alberto & Durrani, Agha & Figueres, Juan Manuel & Konietschke, Paul & Le Grand, Catherine & Metzler, Julian & Población García, Franc, 2024. "Advancements in stress-testing methodologies for financial stability applications," Occasional Paper Series 348, European Central Bank.
    8. Fiordelisi, Franco & Fusi, Giulia & Maddaloni, Angela & Marqués Ibáñez, David, 2022. "Pandemic lending: Micro and macro effects of model-based regulation," SAFE Working Paper Series 374, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    9. Gschossmann, Isabella & Kok, Christoffer & De Cicco, Valentina, 2025. "Bank lending implications of climate stress tests," Working Paper Series 3088, European Central Bank.
    10. Niepmann, Friederike & Stebunovs, Viktors, 2024. "Modeling your stress away," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Paul Konietschke & Steven Ongena & Aurea Ponte Marques, 2022. "Stress tests and capital requirement disclosures: do they impact banks' lending and risk-taking decisions?," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 22-60, Swiss Finance Institute.
    12. António Afonso & Francisco Gomes Pereira, 2025. "Unconventional monetary policy in the Euro area: Impacts on loans, employment, and investment," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 190-220, January.
    13. Abad, Pilar & Robles, M.-Dolores & Alonso Orts, Carlos, 2023. "Stress testing programs and credit risk opacity of banks: USA vs Europe," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    14. Maria Alessia Aiello, 2024. "Climate supervisory shocks and bank lending: empirical evidence from microdata," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1465, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    15. Liang, Lantian & Zhang, Harold H. & Zhao, Feng & Zhao, Xiaofei, 2025. "Disclosure mandate, trust, and asset securitization," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    16. Ahmed, Kasim & Calice, Giovanni, 2024. "The effects of the EBA's stress testing framework on banks' lending," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    17. Cuzzola, Angelo & Barbieri, Claudio & Hałaj, Grzegorz, 2025. "Gaming the test? Window-dressing and portfolio similarity around the EU-wide stress tests," Working Paper Series 3094, European Central Bank.
    18. Baesens, Bart & Smedts, Kristien, 2025. "Boosting credit risk models," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(4).
    19. Lubberink, Martien, 2022. "Max headroom: Discretionary capital buffers and bank risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Hernández, Javier & Población García, Francisco Javier & Suárez, Nuria & Tarancón, Javier, 2022. "A study on the EBA stress test results: influence of bank, portfolio, and country-level characteristics," Working Paper Series 2648, European Central Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:chf:rpseri:rp2259. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Ridima Mittal (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fameech.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.