The paper examines the bank lending activities of banks in a low interest rate environment. External financing of small …- and medium-sized enterprises in the euro area primarily takes place via bank loans and not through capital markets. Based … on the Bankscope database, bank balance sheet data is utilized. Control variables are included, such as for the system of …

this purpose, we measure the intermediation quality of a bank by estimating its profit and cost efficiency while taking the … “normal” and in “bad” times. These results provide evidence to the importance of swiftly restoring bank protability in euro … area crisis countries through addressing high non-performing loans ratios and decisive actions on bank recapitalization. …