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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 35 No. 6 2011

Bank size and risk-taking under Basel II

Hendrik Hakenes1,2,3; Isabel Schnabel3,4,2

1 Leibniz University Hannover · 2 Max Planck Society · 3 Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics · 4 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

open access

Abstract

We analyze the relationship between bank size and risk-taking under the Basel II Capital Accord. Using a model with imperfect competition and moral hazard, we show that the introduction of an internal ratings based (IRB) approach improves upon flat capital requirements if the approach is applied uniformly across banks and if the costs of implementation are not too high. However, the banks’ right to choose between the standardized and the IRB approaches under Basel II gives larger banks a competitive advantage and, due to fiercer competition, pushes smaller banks to take higher risks. This may even lead to higher aggregate risk-taking.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2010.10.031
Volume
35
Issue
6
Pages
1436-1449
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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