Banking competition and financial fragility: Evidence from panel-data

Abstract

We study how competition may affect the stability of banking systems. We modify the failure-determinant methodology to include panel-data techniques. We use indicators for 47 countries between 1990 and 1997. The main findings show that banking concentration and foreign ownership are associated to bank-based financial systems and financial underdevelopment. They also show that banking credit and bank-based financial systems enhance banking fragility. Banking concentration is not a significant determinant. Furthermore our findings suggest that financial structure and, maybe, the property regime matter to assess such fragility.