With the financial crisis spreading to the real economy, the discussion about potential procyclical implications of Basel II received a surge of attention. While existing research approaches the topic either from a theoretical perspective or from an empirical perspective that draws on simulated...

A deep understanding of the drivers of credit risk is valuable for financial institutions as well as for regulators from multiple viewpoints. The systemic component of credit risk drives losses across portfolios and thus poses a threat to financial stability. Traditional approaches consider...

The objective of this article is to identify key determinants of the net interest margin (NIM) in the Austrian banking sector. In Austria, the NIM is one of the most important income drivers of banks given the importance of relationship banking, where interest income dominates other sources of...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze (hypothetical) contagious bank defaults, i.e. defaults not caused by the fundamental weakness of a given bank but triggered by failures in the banking system. As failing banks become unable to honor their commitments on the interbank market, they may cause...

Direct cross-border lending is an important component in the ongoing process of financial deepening in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). We use a loan-level dataset of Austrian banks to study the characteristics as well as the...

This paper analyzes the resilience of credit institutions to instances of financial instability based on simple publicly available balance sheet and income statement figures. In the course of the recent financial crisis and the related credit turmoil, the loss absorption capacity of the global...