Bank Profits and Margins in a World of Negative Rates
Posted: 22 Aug 2019
Date Written: August 19, 2019
Abstract
By investigating the influence of negative interest rate policy (NIRP) on bank margins and profitability, this paper identifies country- and bank- specific characteristics that amplify or weaken the effect of NIRP on bank performance. Using a dataset comprising 7,359 banks from 33 OECD member countries over 2012-2016 and a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that bank margins and profits fell in NIRP-adopter countries compared to countries that did not adopt the policy. Moreover, this adverse NIRP effect depends on bank specific-characteristics such as size, funding structure, business models, assets repricing and product-line specialization. The effectiveness of the pass-through mechanism of NIRP can also be affected by the characteristics of a country's banking system, namely, the level of competition and the prevalence of fixed/floating lending rates.
Keywords: Negative interest rates, bank profitability, NIMs, difference-in-differences estimation, propensity score matching
JEL Classification: E43, E44, E52, G21, F34
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