Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rba/rbaacp/acp2022-04.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Consequences of Low Interest Rates for the Australian Banking Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony Brassil
Abstract
There is a vast international literature exploring the consequences of low interest rates for various banking sectors. In this paper, I explore how this international literature relates to the Australian banking sector, which operates differently to other jurisdictions. In the face of low rates, the profitability of Australian banks has likely been less adversely affected than what the international literature would predict, but the flip side to this is that the pass-through of monetary policy to lending rates may have been more muted. I then use a recent advance in macro-financial modelling to explore whether pass-through in Australia could turn negative—the so called 'reversal rate'—and find that the features of the Australian banking system mean a reversal rate is highly unlikely to exist in Australia.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Brassil, 2022. "The Consequences of Low Interest Rates for the Australian Banking Sector," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2022-04, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Dec 2022.
    • Handle: RePEc:rba:rbaacp:acp2022-04
    Note: Paper presented at the RBA's annual conference 'The Causes, Challenges and Consequences of the Low Interest Rate Environment', Sydney, 28–29 June 2022.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/confs/2022/pdf/rba-conference-2022-brassil.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Brei & Claudio Borio & Leonardo Gambacorta, 2020. "Bank intermediation activity in a low‐interest‐rate environment," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 49(2), July.
    2. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia & Luc Laeven & Gustavo A. Suarez, 2017. "Bank Leverage and Monetary Policy's Risk-Taking Channel: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 613-654, April.
    3. Darracq Pariès, Matthieu & Kok, Christoffer & Rottner, Matthias, 2023. "Reversal interest rate and macroprudential policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    4. Rémi Bazillier & Jérôme Hericourt, 2017. "The Circular Relationship Between Inequality, Leverage, And Financial Crises," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 463-496, April.
    5. Piergiorgio Alessandri & Benjamin D. Nelson, 2015. "Simple Banking: Profitability and the Yield Curve," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(1), pages 143-175, February.
    6. Josef Platzer & Marcel Peruffo, 2022. "Secular Drivers of the Natural Rate of Interest in the United States: A Quantitative Evaluation," IMF Working Papers 2022/030, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Mauricio Ulate, 2021. "Going Negative at the Zero Lower Bound: The Effects of Negative Nominal Interest Rates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(1), pages 1-40, January.
    8. Moritz Schularick & Alan M. Taylor, 2012. "Credit Booms Gone Bust: Monetary Policy, Leverage Cycles, and Financial Crises, 1870-2008," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 1029-1061, April.
    9. Helen Hughson & Gianni La Cava & Paul Ryan & Penelope Smith, 2016. "The Household Cash Flow Channel of Monetary Policy," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 21-30, September.
    10. Onofri, Marco & Peersman, Gert & Smets, Frank, 2023. "The effectiveness of a negative interest rate policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 16-33.
    11. Holston, Kathryn & Laubach, Thomas & Williams, John C., 2017. "Measuring the natural rate of interest: International trends and determinants," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(S1), pages 59-75.
    12. Florian Heider & Farzad Saidi & Glenn Schepens, 2019. "Life below Zero: Bank Lending under Negative Policy Rates," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(10), pages 3728-3761.
    13. Jonathan Kearns & Mike Major & David Norman, 2021. "How Risky Is Australian Household Debt?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(3), pages 313-330, September.
    14. Jacob A. Bikker & Tobias M. Vervliet, 2018. "Bank profitability and risk†taking under low interest rates," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(1), pages 3-18, January.
    15. Cummings, James R. & Durrani, Kassim J., 2016. "Effect of the Basel Accord capital requirements on the loan-loss provisioning practices of Australian banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 23-36.
    16. Carlo Altavilla & Miguel Boucinha & José-Luis Peydró & Thorsten BeckManaging Editor, 2018. "Monetary policy and bank profitability in a low interest rate environment," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 33(96), pages 531-586.
    17. Claudio Borio & Leonardo Gambacorta & Boris Hofmann, 2017. "The influence of monetary policy on bank profitability," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 48-63, March.
    18. J.A. Bikker & Tobias M. Vervliet, 2017. "Bank Profitability and Risk-Taking under Low Interest Rates," Working Papers 17-10, Utrecht School of Economics.
    19. Claudio Borio & Boris Hofmann, 2017. "Is Monetary Policy Less Effective When Interest Rates Are Persistently Low?," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Jonathan Hambur & John Simon (ed.),Monetary Policy and Financial Stability in a World of Low Interest Rates, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    20. Repullo, Rafael, 2020. "The Reversal Interest Rate: A Critical Review," CEPR Discussion Papers 15367, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. David Rodgers, 2015. "Credit Losses at Australian Banks: 1980–2013," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2015-06, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    22. Junttila, Juha & Perttunen, Jukka & Raatikainen, Juhani, 2021. "Keep the faith in banking: New evidence for the effects of negative interest rates based on the case of Finnish cooperative banks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    23. Jan Stráský & Hyunjeong Hwang, 2019. "Negative interest rates in the euro area: Does it hurt banks?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1574, OECD Publishing.
    24. Bolt, Wilko & de Haan, Leo & Hoeberichts, Marco & van Oordt, Maarten R.C. & Swank, Job, 2012. "Bank profitability during recessions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 2552-2564.
    25. Vasso Ioannidou & Steven Ongena & José-Luis Peydró, 2015. "Monetary Policy, Risk-Taking, and Pricing: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(1), pages 95-144.
    26. Morten Linnemann Bech & Aytek Malkhozov, 2016. "How have central banks implemented negative policy rates?," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    27. Alisdair McKay & Johannes F. Wieland, 2021. "Lumpy Durable Consumption Demand and the Limited Ammunition of Monetary Policy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(6), pages 2717-2749, November.
    28. Trent Saunders & Peter Tulip, 2019. "Cost-benefit Analysis of Leaning against the Wind," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2019-05, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    29. Altavilla, Carlo & Burlon, Lorenzo & Giannetti, Mariassunta & Holton, Sarah, 2022. "Is there a zero lower bound? The effects of negative policy rates on banks and firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 885-907.
    30. Albertazzi, Ugo & Andreeva, Desislava & Belloni, Marco & Grassi, Alberto & Gross, Christian & Mosthaf, Jonas & Shakir, Tamarah, 2020. "Prospects for euro area bank lending margins in an extended low-for-longer interest rate environment," Financial Stability Review, European Central Bank, vol. 2.
    31. Gabriel Jiménez & Steven Ongena & José‐Luis Peydró & Jesús Saurina, 2014. "Hazardous Times for Monetary Policy: What Do Twenty‐Three Million Bank Loans Say About the Effects of Monetary Policy on Credit Risk‐Taking?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(2), pages 463-505, March.
    32. Ms. Rima A Turk, 2016. "Negative Interest Rates: How Big a Challenge for Large Danish and Swedish Banks?," IMF Working Papers 2016/198, International Monetary Fund.
    33. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Ragnar E. Juelsrud & Lawrence H. Summers & Ella Getz Wold, 2019. "Negative Nominal Interest Rates and the Bank Lending Channel," NBER Working Papers 25416, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Marianna Kudlyak & John Mondragon & Olivier Coibion, 2014. "Does Greater Inequality Lead to More Household Borrowing? New Evidence from Household Data," 2014 Meeting Papers 402, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    35. Belinda Cheung & Sebastien Printant, 2019. "Australian Money Market Divergence: Arbitrage Opportunity or Illusion?," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2019-09, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    36. Richard Finlay & Dmitry Titkov & Michelle Xiang, 2022. "The Yield and Market Function Effects of the Reserve Bank of Australia's Bond Purchases," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2022-02, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    37. Anthony Brassil & Mike Major & Peter Rickards, 2022. "MARTIN Gets a Bank Account: Adding a Banking Sector to the RBA's Macroeconometric Model," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2022-01, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    38. Michelle Bergmann, 2020. "The Determinants of Mortgage Defaults in Australia – Evidence for the Double-trigger Hypothesis," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2020-03, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    39. Lopez, Jose A. & Rose, Andrew K. & Spiegel, Mark M., 2020. "Why have negative nominal interest rates had such a small effect on bank performance? Cross country evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    40. Papadopoulos, Georgios, 2019. "Income inequality, consumption, credit and credit risk in a data-driven agent-based model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 39-73.
    41. Amzallag, Adrien & Calza, Alessandro & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Sousa, João, 2019. "Monetary policy transmission to mortgages in a negative interest rate environment," Working Paper Series 2243, European Central Bank.
    42. Tom Bilston & Robert Johnson & Matthew Read, 2015. "Stress Testing the Australian Household Sector Using the HILDA Survey," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2015-01, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    43. Koenig, Philipp J. & Schliephake, Eva, 2022. "Bank risk-taking and impaired monetary policy transmission," Working Paper Series 2638, European Central Bank.
    44. Rémi Bazillier & Jérôme Hericourt, 2017. "The Circular Relationship Between Inequality, Leverage, And Financial Crises," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 463-496, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. policy, Work stream on macroprudential & Albertazzi, Ugo & Martin, Alberto & Assouan, Emmanuelle & Tristani, Oreste & Galati, Gabriele & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2021. "The role of financial stability considerations in monetary policy and the interaction with macroprudential policy in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 272, European Central Bank.
    2. Bongiovanni, Alessio & Reghezza, Alessio & Santamaria, Riccardo & Williams, Jonathan, 2021. "Do negative interest rates affect bank risk-taking?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 350-364.
    3. Heider, Florian & Leonello, Agnese, 2021. "Monetary Policy in a Low Interest Rate Environment: Reversal Rate and Risk-Taking," Working Paper Series 2593, European Central Bank.
    4. Junttila, Juha & Nguyen, Vo Cao Sang, 2022. "Impacts of sovereign risk premium on bank profitability: Evidence from euro area," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Albertazzi, Ugo & Barbiero, Francesca & Marqués-Ibáñez, David & Popov, Alexander & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Vlassopoulos, Thomas, 2020. "Monetary policy and bank stability: the analytical toolbox reviewed," Working Paper Series 2377, European Central Bank.
    6. Bottero, Margherita & Minoiu, Camelia & Peydró, José-Luis & Polo, Andrea & Presbitero, Andrea F. & Sette, Enrico, 2022. "Expansionary yet different: Credit supply and real effects of negative interest rate policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 754-778.
    7. Grandi, Pietro & Guille, Marianne, 2023. "Banks, deposit rigidity and negative rates," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    8. Florian Heider & Farzad Saidi & Glenn Schepens, 2021. "Banks and Negative Interest Rates," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 201-218, November.
    9. Wang, Ling, 2023. "Central bank asset purchases, banks’ risky security holdings and profitability: Macro and micro evidence from Japan and the U.S," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 347-364.
    10. policy, Work stream on macroprudential & Policy, Monetary & Stability, Financial & Albertazzi, Ugo & Martin, Alberto & Assouan, Emmanuelle & Tristani, Oreste & Galati, Gabriele & Vlassopoulos, Thomas , 2023. "The role of financial stability considerations in monetary policy and the interaction with macroprudential policy in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 272, European Central Bank.
    11. de Groot, Oliver & Haas, Alexander, 2023. "The signalling channel of negative interest rates," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 87-103.
    12. Joseph Abadi & Markus Brunnermeier & Yann Koby, 2023. "The Reversal Interest Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(8), pages 2084-2120, August.
    13. Darracq Pariès, Matthieu & Kok, Christoffer & Rottner, Matthias, 2023. "Reversal interest rate and macroprudential policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    14. Abildgren, Kim & Kuchler, Andreas, 2023. "Firm behaviour under negative deposit rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. Present, Thomas & Simoens, Mathieu & Vander Vennet, Rudi, 2023. "European bank margins at the zero lower bound," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    16. López-Penabad, Maria Celia & Iglesias-Casal, Ana & Silva Neto, José Fernando, 2022. "Effects of a negative interest rate policy in bank profitability and risk taking: Evidence from European banks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    17. Luis Brandao-Marques & Marco Casiraghi & Gaston Gelos & Gunes Kamber & Roland Meeks, 2021. "Negative Interest Rate Policies: Taking Stock of the Experience So Far," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 22(06), pages 27-32, November.
    18. Joscha Beckmann & Klaus-Jürgen Gern & Nils Jannsen, 2022. "Should they stay or should they go? Negative interest rate policies under review," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 885-912, October.
    19. Martin Brown, 2020. "Negative Interest Rates and Bank Lending," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 21(01), pages 18-23, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    low interest rates; Australian banks; banking systems; monetary policy pass-through; lending rates; deposit rates; reversal rates; credit risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rba:rbaacp:acp2022-04. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paula Drew (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rbagvau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.