This paper explores whether foreign banks stabilise or destabilise lending to the real economy in the presence of sovereign stress in the domestic economy and abroad. In this context, the presence of foreign intermediaries poses a fundamental, yet unexplored, trade-off. On the one hand, domestic...

This study examines the heterogeneity of foreign banks in the income diversification and performance nexus. We utilize annual bank data across 46 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2011-2018 and find that increased income diversification improves banks performance, and the Global...

In this study, we reassess the links between commercial bank ownership and lending growth during the 1996-2019 period. We find evidence that the lending activities of foreign state-controlled and foreign privately owned banks differ, particularly during different crisis type periods and origins....

We study whether misinvoicing in international trade is reflected in cross-border bank accounts as reported by offshore financial centres. We show that residents hold more offshore wealth when local misinvoicing practices thrive, especially for under-invoiced exports of natural resources. These...

We exploit proprietary information on severed correspondent banking relationships - due to the stricter enforcement of financial crime regulation - to assess how payment disruptions impede cross-border trade. Using firm-level export data from emerging Europe, we show that when local respondent...

Beggar-thy-neighbour in macroprudential policy? To answer this question, we study the impact of macroprudential capital buffers on banking groups’ lending and risk-taking decisions. This paper also presents the first evidence on whether banking groups respond to changes in capital buffers by...

The lack of information is a relevant obstacle to the export activity of small and medium enterprises. This paper analyzes whether banks can support firms’ export by reducing informational asymmetries about foreign markets. We exploit a large sample of Italian firms for which we merge custom...

I construct a novel dataset to measure the geographic complexity of parent-only African banks and relate it to their default and earnings risk. For the average African bank, the empirical results show that a higher degree of geographic complexity is associated with a decrease in risk. This...

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the impact of capital account liberalization and foreign bank ownership on income inequality. The timeline was 1991-2020, and the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) were analyzed through an unbalanced panel dataset. To measure...

Motivated by international business research on institutional arbitrage and headquarters-subsidiary relationships, we examine the effect of regulatory distance on multinational banks’ (MNBs) reporting transparency abroad. Using an international sample of foreign subsidiary banks in 46 host...

The effect of cross-border diversification on bank performance is part of the broader debate on how multinational banking and financial integration affect the global financial economy. Much of the empirical studies examining this relationship present mixed results globally. Studies on both sides...

We study supervisory interventions in cross-border banks under different institutional architectures in a model in which a bank may provide voluntary support to an impaired subsidiary using resources from a healthy subsidiary. While supranational architecture permits voluntary support, national...

The lack of information is a relevant obstacle to the export activity of small and medium enterprises. This paper analyzes whether banks can support firms' export by reducing informational asymmetries about foreign markets. We exploit a large sample of Italian firms for which we merge custom...

We characterize how U.S. global systemically important banks (GSIBs) supply short-term dollar liquidity in repo and foreign exchange swap markets in the post-Global Financial Crisis regulatory environment and serve as the "lenders-of-second-to-last-resort". Using daily supervisory bank balance...

The amplitude of leverage procyclicality is heterogeneous across banks and across countries. This paper introduces international diversification of bank balance sheet as a factor of this observed heterogeneity, with a special emphasis on currency diversification. Based on a new theoretical...

This paper examines the impact of international differences in capital regulation on multinational banks’ loan origination location decisions. International loan location decisions represent a key banking margin that has previously not been examined in the literature on regulatory arbitrage by...

Exporting is not only an activity in need of financing, but also a knowledge-intensive activity. Using firm-level destination country-specific export data and bank branch data from China, we find that foreign banks can significantly promote local firms’ export toward the destination country...

The current crisis has led to an unprecedented collapse in international capital flows, with substantial heterogeneity across regions. Asian economies were relatively unaffected, despite having been the center of the storm in the crisis of the late 1990s. The contraction in capital flows for...

The amplitude of leverage procyclicality is heterogeneous across banks and across countries. This paper introduces international diversification of bank balance sheet as a factor of this observed heterogeneity, with a special emphasis on currency diversification. Based on a new theoretical...

Chinese banks have become the largest cross-border creditors for almost half of all emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). While they look closer to other EMDE banks in terms of ownership and balance-sheet structure, their global footprint resembles that of banks from advanced...

We study the relation between country financial connectedness and systemic risk for U.S. banking organizations with global exposures. Using supervisory data on U.S. banks' foreign claims, we find that banks with exposure to countries with globally connected financial markets contribute more to...

This paper examines the effect of host economy creditor rights and information sharing on the profit performance of foreign banks vis-à-vis domestic banks for a global sample of commercial banks over the 2005-2009 period. To this end, we employ the recent foreign bank ownership dataset of...

Using hand-collected data spanning more than a decade on European banks' sovereign debt portfolios, we show that the trust of residents of a bank's countries of operation in the residents of a potential target country of investment has a positive, statistically significant, and economically...

This study investigates the impact of foreign ownership on bank risk in Vietnam between 2006 and 2015. Our findings show that foreign ownership can lower bank risk, suggesting that the State Bank of Vietnam should further remove restrictions on foreign investments in the banking system. The...

We study the role of global financial intermediaries in international lending. We construct a model of the world economy, in which heterogeneous borrowers issue risky securities purchased by financial intermediaries. Aggregate shocks transmit internationally through financial intermediaries' net...

Complexity of banks can have important ramifications for the performance and the risks of the banking system. Financial sector reforms that were implemented in the past decade have thus aimed to reduce and to better manage the risk implications of bank complexity. Yet, surprisingly little is...

This study examines the effect of foreign bank assets and presence on banking stability in the economies with strong and weak country-level corporate governance in Africa between 2006 and 2015. Employing a Prais-Winsten panel data model on 86 banks in about 30 African economies, the findings on...

This paper explores whether foreign intermediaries stabilise or destabilise lending to the real economy in the presence of sovereign stress in the domestic economy and abroad. Tensions in the government debt market may lead to serious disruptions in the provision of lending (i.e., the so-called...

After the inception of the euro, the real economy in most member countries remained dependent on credit by domestic banks, which increasingly funded themselves through cross-border interbank funding. We find that this pattern of 'double-decker' banking integration exposed domestic banks to sharp...