Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments April 6, 2022 erstellt
Beschreibung:
This paper examines how European banks adjusted their lending subsequent to the release of the countercyclical capital buffers (CCyB) during the COVID-19 pandemic. At its onset in 2020Q1, being exposed to a higher ex-ante countercyclical capital buffer led to a reduction in banks' lending. Yet the relief of the CCyBs removed this negative effect from 2020Q2 onwards. We find that the reduction in CCyBs led to a significant relative increase in the average bank's lending by about 5.6 percentage points of their total assets. This increase happened mainly in retail mortgage loans and was independent of banks' capital ratios. These results imply that the release of the CCyBs was effective in promoting bank lending during the pandemic