IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rug/rugwps/22-1039.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

European bank profitability: the Great Convergence?

Author

Listed:
  • Martien Lamers
  • Thomas Present
  • Rudi Vander Vennet

Abstract

Have Euro Area banks restored viability in the post-crisis era? We investigate profitability convergence for Euro Area banks over the period 2009-2020 using the concepts of ß and s convergence and a club clustering algorithm. Our evidence is consistent with a slow catch up of the weaker banks, but we also document that better performing banks converge towards a lower profit level, suggesting a ‘great convergence’ towards the middle. Moreover, we identify a cluster of banks exhibiting dismal profit dynamics, indicating the need for a restructuring of part of the Euro Area banking sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Martien Lamers & Thomas Present & Rudi Vander Vennet, 2022. "European bank profitability: the Great Convergence?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 22/1039, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    • Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:22/1039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_22_1039.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claessens, Stijn & Coleman, Nicholas & Donnelly, Michael, 2018. "“Low-For-Long” interest rates and banks’ interest margins and profitability: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 35(PA), pages 1-16.
    2. Michael Brei & Claudio Borio & Leonardo Gambacorta, 2020. "Bank intermediation activity in a low‐interest‐rate environment," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 49(2), July.
    3. Dell'Ariccia, Giovanni & Detragiache, Enrica & Rajan, Raghuram, 2008. "The real effect of banking crises," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 89-112, January.
    4. Luc Laeven & Fabian Valencia, 2020. "Systemic Banking Crises Database II," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(2), pages 307-361, June.
    5. Simoens, Mathieu & Vennet, Rudi Vander, 2021. "Bank performance in Europe and the US: A divergence in market-to-book ratios," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    6. Altavilla, Carlo & Boucinha, Miguel & Peydró, José-Luis, 2018. "Monetary policy and bank profitability in a low interest rate environment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 33(96), pages 531-586.
    7. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2009. "Economic transition and growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 1153-1185.
    8. Acharya, Viral V. & Steffen, Sascha, 2015. "The “greatest” carry trade ever? Understanding eurozone bank risks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 215-236.
    9. Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia, 2010. "Integration and efficiency convergence in EU banking markets," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 260-267, October.
    10. Martien Lamers & Thomas Present & Rudi Vander Vennet, 2022. "Sovereign Exposures of European Banks: It Is Not All Doom," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-24, February.
    11. Molyneux, Philip & Reghezza, Alessio & Xie, Ru, 2019. "Bank margins and profits in a world of negative rates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Gerhardt, Maria & Vennet, Rudi Vander, 2017. "Bank bailouts in Europe and bank performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 74-80.
    13. Viral V Acharya & Lea Borchert & Maximilian Jager & Sascha Steffen, 2021. "Kicking the Can Down the Road: Government Interventions in the European Banking Sector," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(9), pages 4090-4131.
    14. Matousek, Roman & Rughoo, Aarti & Sarantis, Nicholas & George Assaf, A., 2015. "Bank performance and convergence during the financial crisis: Evidence from the ‘old’ European Union and Eurozone," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 208-216.
    15. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    16. Claudio Borio & Leonardo Gambacorta & Boris Hofmann, 2017. "The influence of monetary policy on bank profitability," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 48-63, March.
    17. Loipersberger, Florian, 2018. "The effect of supranational banking supervision on the financial sector: Event study evidence from Europe," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 34-48.
    18. Stavros A. Kourtzidis & Roman Matousek & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes, 2019. "Productivity growth in network models: An application to banking during the financial crisis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(1), pages 111-124, January.
    19. Degl'Innocenti, Marta & Kourtzidis, Stavros A. & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank productivity growth and convergence in the European Union during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 184-199.
    20. Loipersberger, Florian, 2018. "The effect of supranational banking supervision on the financial sector: Event study evidence from Europe," Munich Reprints in Economics 62838, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    21. Bongini, Paola & Cucinelli, Doriana & Battista, Maria Luisa Di & Nieri, Laura, 2019. "Profitability shocks and recovery in time of crisis evidence from European banks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 233-239.
    22. Andersson, Magnus & Kok, Christoffer & Mirza, Harun & Móré, Csaba & Mosthaf, Jonas, 2018. "How can euro area banks reach sustainable profitability in the future?," Financial Stability Review, European Central Bank, vol. 2.
    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. Yildirim, Canan & Kasman, Adnan & Gulamhussen, Mohamed Azzim, 2023. "Efficiency of multinational banks: Impacts of geographic and product loci," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    2. Su-Jane Chen, 2023. "Beta convergence and sigma convergence of key financial ratios post the Great Recession: community banks vs. non-community banks," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(2), pages 922-933.
    3. Bolívar, Fernando & Duran, Miguel A. & Lozano-Vivas, Ana, 2023. "Business model contributions to bank profit performance: A machine learning approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Raftis, Achilleas & Karpetis, Christos & Papadamou, Stephanos & Spyromitros, Eleftherios, 2024. "Monetary winds of change: Exploring the link between policy shifts and bank profitability in developed and emerging European markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    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. Gulati, Rachita, 2022. "Bank ownership and governance quality in India: Evolution and detection of convergence clubs," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Argimon, Isabel & Danton, Jayson M. & de Haan, Jakob & Rodriguez-Martin, Javier & Rodriguez-Moreno, Maria, 2023. "Low interest rates and banks’ interest margins: Does belonging to a banking group matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    3. Philip Molyneux & Alessio Reghezza & Chiara Torriero & Jonathan Williams, 2021. "Banks' noninterest income and securities holdings in a low interest rate environment: The case of Italy," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 27(1), pages 98-119, January.
    4. Albertazzi, Ugo & Barbiero, Francesca & Marqués-Ibáñez, David & Popov, Alexander & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2020. "Monetary policy and bank stability: the analytical toolbox reviewed," Working Paper Series 2377, European Central Bank.
    5. Bats, Joost V. & Giuliodori, Massimo & Houben, Aerdt C.F.J., 2023. "Monetary policy effects in times of negative interest rates: What do bank stock prices tell us?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Raymond F. D. D. Chaudron & Leo Haan & Marco Hoeberichts, 2023. "Banks’ Net Interest Income from Maturity Transformation and Other Interest Income: Communicating Vessels?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 35-62, February.
    7. Ting Li Liu & Muhammad Mateen Naveed & Sohaib Mustafa & Muhammad Tahir Naveed, 2024. "Analysing the impact of digital technology diffusion on the efficiency and convergence process of the commercial banking industry of Pakistan," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, December.
    8. Molyneux, Philip & Pancotto, Livia & Reghezza, Alessio & Rodriguez d'Acri, Costanza, 2022. "Interest rate risk and monetary policy normalisation in the euro area," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    9. Hidemichi Fujii & Shunsuke Managi & Roman Matousek & Aarti Rughoo, 2018. "Bank efficiency, productivity, and convergence in EU countries: a weighted Russell directional distance model," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 135-156, January.
    10. Paul, Pascal, 2023. "Banks, maturity transformation, and monetary policy," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    11. Soenen, Nicolas & Vander Vennet, Rudi, 2022. "ECB monetary policy and bank default risk☆," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    12. Nimrod Segev & Sigal Ribon & Michael Kahn & Jakob Haan, 2024. "Low Interest Rates and Banks’ Interest Margins: Does Deposit Market Concentration Matter?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 189-218, June.
    13. policy, Work stream on macroprudential & Albertazzi, Ugo & Martin, Alberto & Assouan, Emmanuelle & Tristani, Oreste & Galati, Gabriele & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2021. "The role of financial stability considerations in monetary policy and the interaction with macroprudential policy in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 272, European Central Bank.
    14. Olson, Dennis & Zoubi, Taisier, 2017. "Convergence in bank performance for commercial and Islamic banks during and after the Global Financial Crisis," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 71-87.
    15. Wang, Ling, 2023. "Central bank asset purchases, banks’ risky security holdings and profitability: Macro and micro evidence from Japan and the U.S," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 347-364.
    16. Bank for International Settlements, 2019. "Unconventional monetary policy tools: a cross-country analysis," CGFS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 63, december.
    17. Nicolas Soenen & Rudi Vander Vennet, 2020. "ECB Monetary Policy and Bank Default Risk," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 20/997, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    18. Elien Meuleman & Rudi Vander Vennet, 2022. "Macroprudential Policy, Monetary Policy, and Euro Zone Bank Risk," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 18(4), pages 1-52, October.
    19. Rughoo, Aarti & You, Kefei, 2016. "Asian financial integration: Global or regional? Evidence from money and bond markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 419-434.
    20. Lopez, Jose A. & Rose, Andrew K. & Spiegel, Mark M., 2020. "Why have negative nominal interest rates had such a small effect on bank performance? Cross country evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Euro Area banks; bank profitability; ß convergence; s convergence; club clustering analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C38 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Classification Methdos; Cluster Analysis; Principal Components; Factor Analysis
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    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:rug:rugwps:22/1039. 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: Nathalie Verhaeghe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugbe.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.