We assess the effects of increased bank competition on macroeconomic and lending dynamics and on the transmission of monetary policy. Applying panel local projections to state-level data, we, in a first step, investigate the dynamic effects of fiercer bank competition induced by deregulation allowing geographical expansion of banks across state borders in the 1980s and early-1990s. We allow for possible adjustments before the new laws became effective due to potential anticipation effects. Our findings suggest that these events were anticipated and that they temporarily increased economic activity as well as business and consumer lending. We also find a permanent increase in real estate lending and house prices. In a second step, we show that the impact of monetary policy on economic activity, house prices and lending tended to become stronger after interstate banking deregulation.

We investigate the bank competition-stability nexus based on a unique regulatory dataset. First, we use outright bank defaults, and control for a wide array of different time-varying bank characteristics which are likely to influence the nexus. Second, we simultaneously include measures of competition and market power corresponding to the bank, county, and federal state level. Third, we investigate the role of bank competition in the transmission of monetary policy to bank risk. From a policy perspective, our findings indicate that competition-reducing regulation does not necessarily enhance either the stability of individual banks or their resilience to monetary policy shocks.