Political promotion incentives and banking supervision: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Junguo Cheng, Lei Wang and Jing He

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2023, vol. 156, issue C

Abstract: We document the importance of political promotion incentives for supervisors in banking supervision. Utilizing the merger of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) in 2018, we explore the actions of head of the CBRC's regional offices. We find that the increased political promotion incentives are associated with higher frequency, greater amount, and greater severity of penalties in regional banking supervision. The enhanced supervision is more remarkable when the head of the CBRC's regional offices has a higher political rank. After the merger of the two commissions, the regional banking supervision is significantly weakened with the disappearance of political promotion incentives. Furthermore, these enhanced regional supervision triggered by the merger event reduce bank risk. Our findings show that the increased political promotion incentives affect the supervisor's activities and improve the supervision effectiveness.

Keywords: Political promotion incentives; Banking supervision; Merger (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G18 G21 G28 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:156:y:2023:i:c:s0378426623002030

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2023.107012

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