This paper analyzes the pass-through of money market rates to retail interest rates in the Belgian banking market using disaggregate data and allowing for heterogeneous price setting behavior. We find that 1) corporate loans are priced more competitively than consumer loans, 2) pass-through is...

This paper investigates whether or not functionally diversified banks have a comparative advantage in terms of long-term performance/risk profile compared to their specialized competitors. To that end, this study uses market-based measures of return potential and bank risk. We calculate the...

This paper investigates the return/risk behavior of European banks in the economic downturn of 2000-2003 in order to investigate the sources of bank resilience during the economic slowdown. We identify banks with different strategies and different characteristics before the slowdown and...

This paper investigates whether the stock returns of banks with different risk profiles exhibit different risk factor sensitivities over the business cycle. More specifically, we investigate whether or not high levels of capital adequacy or functional diversification provide banks with a...

This paper investigates whether or not functionally diversified banks have a comparative advantage in terms of long-term performance/risk profile compared to their specialized competitors. To that end, this study uses market-based measures of return potential and bank risk. We calculate the...

This paper investigates how stock market investors perceive the impact of market structure and efficiency on the long-run performance potential of European banks. To that end, a modified Tobin's Q ratio is introduced as a measure of bank franchise value. This measure is applied to discriminate...

We explore the impact of concentration in the banking markets on the capital structure of publicly quoted non-financial firms in the EU15 over the period 1997-2005, an era marked by intensive merger activity in the banking sector. Theory offers conflicting predictions: the market power...

This paper analyzes the pass-through of money market rates to retail interest rates in the Belgian banking market using disaggregate data and allowing for heterogeneous price setting behavior. We find that 1) corporate loans are priced more competitively than consumer loans, 2) pass-through is...

Information technology affects banking in two main ways. First, it may reduce costs by replacing paper-based, labour intensive methods with automated processes. Second, it may modify the ways in which consumers have access to banks' services and products and, hence, may enhance the...

We propose a new approach to measuring the effect of unobservable private information on volatility. Using high-frequency intraday data, we estimate the volatility effect of a well identified shock on the volatility of the stock returns of large European banks as a function of the quality of...