Loan diversification is a typical mechanism used by financial institutions to minimize their portfolio risk. However, diversification might not always be beneficial in response to the complex task of monitoring credit risks and the associated incentives. For instance, a highly diversified bank...

Interbank markets are crucial for the proper functioning of banking systems. The analysis of these markets has different dimensions: (i) the diversity of actors involved both from the demand and supply sides, (ii) the regulatory framework and (iii) the risks associated with financial operations....

This paper analyzes the evolution and differential scope of restrictions to financing for the companies surveyed by the Large Companies Survey (ENGE) of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) during the period 1995-2003. The main purpose of this study is to differentiate results...

We use a variation on the business cycle accounting method of Chari, Kehoe and McGrattan (CKM) to study the business cycle in Argentina from 1972 to 2006. The method uses real data together with the equilibrium conditions of a prototype growth model to measure four wedges that are explained by...

In order to comply with their main objective of price stability, monetary authorities rely on analytic tools to properly assess tendencies and inflationary pressures in the economy. Therefore Central Banks are interested in analyzing and monitoring changes in cyclical fluctuations of economic...

The impact of the business cycle on banks’ internally generated cash flows is an important driver in the pro-cyclical dynamics of the traditional banking business. This issue has been understated in the discussion on counter-cyclical regulations. Considerable attention has been given to the...

The lack of access to financial services and to credit in particular is an issue in many developing countries. This paper studies the channels through which new borrowers get access to consumer loans and the effect of repayment data distribution both on that access and on subsequent bank...

The presence of seasonal fluctuations (regular behavior along the year related to weather or institutional factors) invalidates monthly (quarterly) comparisons. In turn, since inter-annual variations depend on the comparison basis being used, they could provide very little information to the...

We exploit the richness of a large data set of daily and monthly business cycle indicators by pooling them to produce Nowcast of contemporaneous real GDP growth. We conduct predictions based on a pooling of bivariate forecasts which uses these indicators as predictors of GDP (Nowcast with...

Based on the information of Argentine banks during the period 1998-2005, this paper analyzes if the bank loan portfolio was efficient in the sense of prioritizing the productive sectors with higher growth and stability. The statistical and econometrical response of the study is an unequivocal...