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Despite the extensive debate on the impact of bank competition on risk-taking, there is no evidence of its role in procyclicality of loan-loss provisions (LLPs). The purpose of this study is to find out what is the role of competition in the procyclicality of LLPs.

Using over 70,000 bank-level observations in 103 countries in 2004–2015 and the LLPs model, this study interacts competition with business cycle to check what is the effect of competition on procyclicality of LLPs.

This study finds that intense competition is associated with more procyclicality of LLPs. Increased procyclicality of LLPs in a more competitive environment is binding for high-income countries. The opposite effect is shown for low-income countries.

Future research can be extended by testing the role of additional factors – such as regulations, supervision or institutional protection of shareholders' rights, in the association between procyclicality and competition.

The main message of this paper is that the competitive environment changes the procyclicality of LLPs. The results are important from the point of view of the COVID-19 pandemic because government interventions during lockdowns will affect competition in the banking industry and in other industries of the economy.

This paper contributes to the extant research in three dimensions. First, it shows that competition is an important factor behind procyclicality of LLPs. Second, it adds to the research on the links between competition and financial stability. Third, it shows that the link between competition and procyclicality of LLPs depends on the economic development of the country in which the banks are located.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the momentous gap by explicitly investigating the asymmetric effects of monetary policy (MP) on non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI) assets.

The authors utilized panel data from 29 countries for the period of 2012–2020 and used the quantile regression estimation. In addition to simultaneous quantile regression (SQR), the authors also employ quantile regression with clustered data (Parente and Silva, 2016) and the generalized quantile regression (GQR) method (Powell, 2020).

The empirical results show a significant heterogeneous impact of MP. While there is a positive relationship between MP and NBFI assets (“waterbed effect”) at lower quantiles of NBFI assets, at middle and higher quantiles, MP has a negative impact on NBFI assets (“search for yield” effect). The authors further find that negative impact strengthens as the quantile levels of NBFI assets rise from mid to high. Findings also reveal that “procyclicality” (except higher quantile) and “institutional demand” hypotheses hold. However, regarding “regulatory arbitrage,” mixed results are observed indicating the impact of Basel III requirements.

Previous empirical studies have concentrated on either the Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) framework or conditional mean regression approaches and delivered mixed findings of the MP effects on NBFI. The current paper takes a step toward dealing with this issue by deploying quantile regression methodology, which shows the impact of MP on NBFI at different conditional distributions (quantiles) of NBFI assets instead of just NBFI's conditional mean distribution.

The “public interest” of financial institutions was used as an argument to intervene in accounting practices. The Bank of Spain's standard was not compatible with International Accounting Standard (henceforth IAS) 39 and the Spanish banking sector had become one of the most provisioned in Europe. This makes it an interesting case study of the relationship between provisioning and income smoothing. The 2008 financial crisis revealed that provisions were insufficient and a reinforcement regulation process began in 2012. This paper aims to examine whether, since 2012, the Bank of Spain's regulatory effort on impairment accounting standards has induced less income smoothing, correcting its countercyclical effect.

A regression model is applied during the period 2005–2020, to test whether there is a trend change in the correlation between the level of provisions and annual earnings in 2012.

The results show that from 2012 onwards (when the Bank of Spain reinforced the regulation on provisioning), there was a correction in income smoothing behaviour.

This study provides empirical evidence that reinforces the claim that accounting policy can affect decision-making accounting practices, in this particular case, at the Bank of Spain.

This paper aims to improve the debate linking the business models of banks to their riskiness by checking if diversification exerts different impacts on the probability of bank distress depending on the level of capital buffers.

The paper focuses on a sample of listed bank holding companies observed between 2007:Q3 and 2022:Q4. The authors use three subindexes of bank diversification. The authors estimate a dynamic model specification using a system generalized method of moments with robust standard errors and consistent estimators under heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation within a panel. Sensitivity and robustness checks are performed.

Asset and income diversification increase the probability of distress in low-capitalized banks during normal periods (excluding periods of crises and high uncertainty). Concerning crisis periods, a marginal increase in asset diversification during the global financial crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis induces a more important increase in the probability of failure of well-capitalized banks relative to low-capitalized ones. Contrary to the results obtained for the GFC period, well-capitalized banks were found to pursue more careful funding diversification in reaction to the sudden increase of uncertainty during the Russia–Ukraine war.

Prudential supervision should concentrate on well-capitalized banks to encompass unexpected excessive risk-taking during crisis periods. Regulatory requirements should constrain fragile banks to avoid pursuing assets and income diversification strategies that increase earnings volatility.

The main originality of this paper is to consider the interaction between three different dimensions of bank diversification and capital regulation during stable and unstable periods using the marginal effect analysis. Moreover, this paper uses, initially, the GFC as the reference crisis period to study the impact of capital buffers and diversification interactions on the probability of bank distress. Then, the authors extend the observation period until 2022:Q4 to include two additional major events, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

This paper empirically investigates whether trade openness (TO) in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries affects how banks might employ loan loss provisions (LLPs) to smooth out their earnings and how adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) can mitigate it.

The analysis includes 78 commercial banks from five BRICS nations and spans 2014 through 2020. To test these hypotheses, the authors utilized a fixed-effect and two-step system panel generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimator.

TO positively affects income smoothing (earnings management) across BRICS commercial banks. The effect is clearer in banks that make financial reports under the IFRS. Path analysis reveals that the effect of TO is driven by nonperforming loans (NPLs). Additionally, the IFRS restricts earnings management in the BRICS banking sector when a better institutional environment is present. The authors found that accounting rules (IFRS) and enforcement (better institutional settings) interact to enhance earnings’ quality.

The relationship between TO and bank earnings management practices is important for understanding the complex interplay between trade and finance and ensuring financial stability, investor confidence and regulatory compliance. This study recommends better regulations and governance mechanisms for financial reports in emerging nations like BRICS. Additionally, macro-prudential regulators and banking supervisors should work closely to ensure transparent TO decisions with improved discipline, institutional quality and regulatory support to enhance bank stability.

The study finds evidence of bank income smoothing in the BRICS and introduces TO as a determinant. It also identifies the evolving role of IFRS in the presence of higher institutional quality and TO, thereby expanding the financial reporting literature.

This study aims to demonstrate and measure the impact of liquidity shocks on a bank’s solvency, especially when the bank does not hold sufficient liquid assets.

The proposed model is an extension of Merton’s (1974) model. It assesses the bank’s probability of default over one or two (short) periods relative to liquidity shocks. The shock scenarios are materialised by different net demands for the withdrawal of funds (NDWF) and may lead the bank to sell illiquid assets at a depreciated value. We consider the possibility of second-round effects at the beginning of the second period by introducing the probability of their occurrence. This probability depends on the proportion of illiquid assets put up for sale following the initial shock in different dependency scenarios.

We observe a positive relationship between the initial NDWF and the bank’s probability of default (particularly over the second period, which is conditional on the second-round effects). However, this relationship is not linear, and a significant proportion of liquid assets makes it possible to attenuate or even eliminate the effects of shock scenarios on bank solvency.

The proposed model enables banks to determine the necessary level of liquid assets, allowing them to resist (i.e. remain solvent) different liquidity shock scenarios for both periods (including eventual second-round effects) under the assumptions considered. Therefore, it can contribute to complementing or improving current internal liquidity adequacy assessment processes (ILAAPs).

The proposed microprudential approach consists of measuring the impact of liquidity risk on a bank’s solvency, complementing the current prudential framework in which these two topics are treated separately. It also complements the existing literature, in which the impact of liquidity risk on solvency risk has not been sufficiently studied. Finally, our model allows banks to manage liquidity using a solvency approach.

Financial stability has become a focal point for central banks since the global financial crisis. However, the optimal mix between monetary and financial stability policies remains unclear. In this study, the “soft” approach to such policy mix was tested – how often monetary policy (in inflation reports) analyses financial stability issues. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

A total of 648 inflation reports published by 11 central banks from post-communist countries in 1998-2019 were reviewed using a text-mining method.

Results show that financial stability topics (mainly cyclical aspects of systemic risk) on average account for only 2%of inflation reports’ content. Although this share has grown somewhat since the global financial crisis (in CZ, HU and PL), it still remains at a low level. Thus, not enough evidence was found on the use of a “soft” policy mix in post-communist countries.

Given the strong interactions between price and financial stability, this paper emphasizes the need to increase the attention of monetary policymakers to financial stability issues.

The study combines two research areas, i.e. monetary policy and modern text mining techniques on a sample of post-communist countries, something which to the best of the authors’ knowledge has not been sufficiently explored in the literature before.

This study aims to present an empirical investigation on the effect of natural resource rent on income inequality in Algeria over the period 1980–2020.

The analysis is carried out by using the novel developed method dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulation technique alongside the Kernel-based regularized least squares.

The bounds test revealed a long-run relationship between natural resource rent and income inequality. Our estimation results suggest that natural resource rent, GDP per capita and government expenditures are all associated with lower income inequality in the short and long term. Moreover, the author found that better institutional quality is more likely to reduce income inequality in Algeria. This empirical finding is further validated by the counterfactual shocks from the dynamic ARDL simulation, which reveal a significant decrease in predicted income inequality following a positive change in resource rents and a gradual, significant increase in inequality after a negative change in resource rents.

The present study is the first to use the dynamic ARDL model to investigate the impact of positive and negative changes in natural resource rent on income inequality in Algeria.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of macroeconomic cyclical indicators and country governance on bank non-performing loans in African countries.

Data was collected from the 53 African countries covering 2005–2021. The paper develops an empirical model to examine the impact of country governance in reducing macroeconomic cycle-induced adverse effects on bank credit risk. This research estimates Random Effects models and the General Method of Moment to examine the link between microeconomic and governance factors on bank non-performing loans. Stata version 15.1 was used to conduct panel regression analysis.

The findings of the study revealed that the generalized method of moments findings contributes valuable insights into the persistence of NPLs over time and the specific effects of variables on NPL levels. The study findings highlight that the debt-to-GDP ratio, unemployment, regulatory quality, government effectiveness and inflation have significant relationships with NPLs, shedding light on their specific contributions to credit risk dynamics.

The focus on a specific set of determinants for NPLs, which may not capture all the factors that influence NPL levels. Thus, the study did not consider the impact of macroeconomic shocks, such as natural disasters or global economic crises, which can have a significant impact on NPLs.

Policymakers should prioritize maintaining sustainable debt levels, promoting employment growth and controlling inflation rates to mitigate credit risk and reduce nonperforming loans. Also, enhancing regulatory quality and government effectiveness is crucial in ensuring financial stability and minimizing non-performing loans in Africa.

This paper provides a new possible solution to minimise bank non-performing loans risk by examining interactions of country governance regarding the macroeconomic cycle behaviour.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0729

This paper aims to study, by means of an empirical approach, how monetary policy might affect the distribution of individual income.

After describing the channels through which monetary policy could impinge on income distribution, the authors carry out a panel analysis of 62 countries that control their monetary policy for the period 1996–2015.

Using two possible proxy variables for monetary policy (the monetary aggregate M3 and the real interest rates), the results reveal a significant positive relationship between real interest rates and income inequality measured through the market Gini coefficient and polarization ratios. The findings suggest that central bankers should be more aware of the redistributive effects of monetary policy.

It should be mentioned the major challenge of data limitation in the empirical investigation on the relationship between monetary policies and inequalities.

The empirical evidence presented in this paper supports the premise that central bankers should not ignore the unintended redistributive consequences of their actions. In this regard, it is worth noting that if, in addition to price stability, central banks are also responsible for financial stability; the rationale behind central bank independence needs to be reconsidered.

An outstanding feature of the paper is its sample size and the variety of countries included in the sample, which includes countries from all continents and with very different levels of economic development. Also, unlike papers based on forecasting modeling – e.g. Vector autoregression (VAR) or Structural vector autoregression (SVAR) models, the study follows an explanatory approach, including not only monetary variables, but also a series of regressors that may have a meaningful and significant impact on inequality, according to a wide literature.