Has Regulatory Capital Made Banks Safer? Skin in the Game vs Moral Hazard

Abstract

The paper evaluates the impact of macroprudential capital regulation on bank capital, risk taking behaviour, and solvency. The identication relies on an exogenous policy change in bank-level capital requirements across systemically important banks in Europe. A one percentage point hike in capital requirements leads to anaverage CET1 capital level increase of 13 percent improving their loss absorption capacity.