The nexus between monetary policy, banking market structures and bank risk-taking

Using a sample of stock-listed bank holding companies located in Western Europe over the period from 1997 to 2008 this paper provides empirical evidence that an increase in short-term interest rates as well as an extended period of expansionary monetary policy has a negative impact on European stock-listed banks’ soundness as measured by the Expected Default Frequency. Against this background and in order to evaluate interactions between the risk-taking channel of monetary policy and the competitiveness of a country’s banking market we find a negative impact of an increase in competition in the loan market – proxied by the Boone-indicator – on financial soundness. Referring to the structural-conduct performance (SCP) paradigm, this paper provides further evidence that an increase in concentration in the banking market spurs financial soundness.