Lower bank capital requirements as a policy tool to support credit to SMEs: evidence from a policy experiment

Mathias Lé, Sandrine Lecarpentier (), Henri Fraisse and Michel Dietsch
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Sandrine Lecarpentier: EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Starting in 2014 with the implementation of the European Commission Capital Requirement Directive, banks operating in the Euro area were benefiting from a 25% reduction (the Supporting Factor or "SF" hereafter) in their own funds requirements against Small and Medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs" hereafter) loans. We investigate empirically whether this reduction has supported SME financing and to which extent it is consistent with SME credit risk. Economic capital computations based on multifactor models do confirm that capital requirements should be lower for SMEs. Taking into account the uncertainty surrounding their estimates and adopting a conservative approach, we show that the SF is consistent with the difference in economic capital between SMEs and large corporates. As for the impact on credit distribution, our differences-in-differences specification enables us to find a positive and significant impact of the SF on the credit supply.

Keywords: SME finance; Credit supply; Basel III; Credit risk modelling; SME Supporting Factor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04141885
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Related works:
Working Paper: Lower Bank Capital Requirements as a Policy Tool to Support Credit to SMEs: Evidence From a Policy Experiment? (2020)
Working Paper: Lower bank capital requirements as a policy tool to support credit to SMEs: evidence from a policy experiment (2019)
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