The Determinants of Capital Structure: Some Evidence from Banks

This paper documents that standard cross-sectional determinants of firm leverage also apply to the capital structure of large banks in the United States and Europe. We find a remarkable consistency in sign, significance and economic magnitude. Like non-financial firms, banks appear to have stable capital structures at levels that are specific to each individual bank. The results suggest that capital requirements may only be of second-order importance for banks? capital structures and confirm the robustness of current corporate finance findings in a holdout sample of banks.