Russia has witnessed a high number of bank failures over the last two decades. Using monthly data for 2002-2020, spanning four election cycles, we test the hypothesis that bank failures are less likely before presidential elections. We find that bank failures are less likely to occur in the...

The Russian banking sector has experienced enormous growth rates during the last 6-7 years. The rapid growth of assets has, however, contributed to a decrease in the capital adequacy ratio, thus influencing the ability of banks to cope with risk. Using quarterly data spanning from 1999 to 2007...

This paper considers whether local bank participation exerts an impact on the spreads for syndicated loans in Russia. Following Berger, Klapper and Udell (2001), we test whether local banks possess a superior ability to deal with information asymmetries. Using a sample of 528 syndicated loans to...

This paper analyzes interest margin determinants in the Russian banking sector with a particular emphasis on the bank ownership structure. Using a unique bank-level data covering Russia's entire banking sector for the 1999-2007 period, we find that the impact of a number of commonly used...

This paper investigates stock market reaction to debt arrangements in Russia. The analysis of the valuation of debt arrangements by stock markets provides information about the use of debt by Russian companies. We apply the event study methodology to check whether debt announcements lead to...

This paper examines how the introduction of deposit insurance influences the relationship between bank cap-ital and liquidity creation. As discussed by Berger and Bouwman (2009), there are two competing hypothes-es on this relationship which can be influenced by the presence of deposit...

The recent financial crisis emphasised the need for effective financial stability analyses and tools for detecting systemic risk. This paper looks at assessment of banking sector resilience through stress testing. We argue such analyses are valuable even in emerging economies that suffer from...

This paper investigates the relationship between fiscal policy and output volatility in Russian regions between 2000 and 2009. System GMM estimation techniques are used to account for potential endogeneity between output volatility and fiscal developments. Our main finding is that fiscal...

State-owned banks tend to increase lending before elections for the purpose of boosting the re-election odds of incumbent politicians. We employ monthly data on individual banks to study whether Russian banks increased their lending before presidential elections during 2004-2019, a period...

This paper analyzes interest margin determinants in the Russian banking sector with a particular emphasis on the bank ownership structure. Using unique bank-level data covering Russia's entire banking sector for the 1999–2007 period, we find that the impact of a number of commonly used...