This paper investigates bank portfolio composition under Basel II where the amount of required capital is determined by bank's own risk assessment. We particularly show that in presence of asymmetric information between the bank and the supervisor, it has incentives to understate its risk taking...

We depart from the fact that in Europe, unlike the leverage ratio, risk-based capital ratios are formally under capital regulation with specified minimum thresholds to be respected. Building on this difference, we study their comparative persistence and convergence. For this purpose, we borrow...

Using a sample of European commercial banks over the period 1993-2006, we show that market discipline significantly and positively affects banks' capital buffer. By distinguishing junior from senior debt holders, we find that both types of investors exert a pressure on banks to hold more capital...