Should the CCyB Be Enhanced with a Sectoral Dimension?

The paper investigates whether there is sufficient empirical support in Italy for the introduction of a sectoral countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) in the macroprudential framework. We study the sectoral decomposition of the credit-to-GDP gap over the period 1990Q1-2017Q2. Overall, our results suggests that a sectoral CCyB could be a useful addition to the macroprudential framework as both the timing for activation and the size of the capital buffer can differ when accounting for the sectoral dimension of the credit-to-GDP gap. We find that the synchronicity of sectoral credit cycles decreases as we move from a two-sector to a six-sector decomposition. Moreover, the contribution of sectoral cycles to systemic stress, as measured by the system-wide new bad debt rate, as well as the prudential requirements associated with their risk exposure differ quite significantly. While exuberance in the non-real-estate related segment of corporate lending is usually followed by a surge in systemic stress, exuberance in the real-estate related segment of business lending does not