Post-2014, the zero lower bound on household deposits has intensified the downward pressure of the ECB's accommodative monetary policy on banks' net interest margins. Using a shadow rate to capture the stance of (unconventional) monetary policy, we construct counterfactual deposit rates,...

Post 2008, the market-to-book ratios of European and US banks have diverged markedly. We use panel regressions to investigate the determinants of the M/B ratios of 112 European and US banks. We show that the underperformance of European banks is mainly driven by non-performing loans and by the...

This paper offers evidence that bank managers adjust key strategic variables following a risk and/or valuation signal. Banks receive a risk signal when they have a substantially higher volatility compared to the best performing bank(s) with similar business model characteristics, and a valuation...

We investigate whether sovereign bond holdings of European banks are determined by a risk-return trade-off. Using data between 2011 and 2018 for 75 European banks, we confirm that banks exhibited risk-taking behavior during the sovereign debt crisis, e.g., due to moral suasion. In the period...