{"title":"The digital dilemma: Corporate digital transformation and default risk","authors":"Kai Wu, Yufei Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101393","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101393","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the association between corporate digital transformation and default risk for a sample of Chinese-listed firms from 2009 to 2022. We find a robust positive association between digital transformation and corporate default risk. Further tests reveal the destabilizing impact of digital adoption strengthens under greater competition, human capital intensity, shareholder expropriation, and weak monitoring. The additional analysis points to resource misallocation and managerial manipulations as two potential channels propagating distress. We show that digital transformation correlates with escalated asset impairments and financial frauds. Our study provides evidence that digital transformation strategies entail underappreciated risks to financial stability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101393"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barbara Casu , Elena Kalotychou , Petros Katsoulis
{"title":"Stress testing OTC derivatives: Clearing reforms and market frictions","authors":"Barbara Casu , Elena Kalotychou , Petros Katsoulis","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101388","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101388","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We develop a stress-testing network model calibrated to the largest banks and investment funds in over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. We examine the impact of the mandatory collateralisation of bilateral OTC derivatives on liquidity, counterparty, and systemic risks, as well as the impact of market frictions on participants’ ability to withstand liquidity shocks. The collateralisation of bilateral trades reduces counterparty and systemic risks but increases the prominence of liquidity-driven defaults and the potential for the central counterparty to transmit losses. Frictions such as fire sales, delayed payments, and no partial payments by defaulted counterparties greatly increase liquidity risk and systemic losses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101388"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143201030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ECB’s APP’s impact on non-financial firms’ cost of borrowing and debt choice","authors":"Joana F. Kanda , João M. Pinto , Beatriz P. Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101387","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101387","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the impact of the ECB’s asset purchase programmes on euro area non-financial firms’ cost of borrowing and their choice between corporate bonds and syndicated loans. Our findings indicate that the Corporate Sector Purchase Programme (CSPP) reduced spreads for both eligible and non-eligible corporate bonds, and that ECB purchases of covered bonds positively affected corporate bond spreads. The CSPP also compressed spreads across all syndicated loans, irrespective of eligibility. We find evidence supporting a “cost of borrowing channel” for covered bonds under the first programme and asset-backed securities, indicating that syndicated loan spreads reflect banks’ borrowing costs in the bond market. Additionally, our results reveal that the CSPP significantly influenced firms’ debt financing choices, with these effects being more pronounced for non-switchers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101387"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143372777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stock liquidity and corporate climate performance: evidence from China","authors":"Linda Tinofirei Muchenje","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101389","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101389","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we consider for the first time whether and how stock liquidity impacts corporate climate performance in China. We find that an increase in stock liquidity is highly associated with lower carbon emissions. To address endogeneity concerns, we exploit a unique quasi-natural experiment in China— the stock market liberalization (Shanghai-Shenzhen Hong Kong Stock Connect). Using difference-in-differences (DID) estimations, we find that carbon emissions for treatment firms substantially decrease after the stock market liberalization. The impact of stock liquidity is more pronounced for enterprises facing severe financial constraints, greater equity dependence, and operating in pollution-intensive sectors. Similarly, we find that external monitoring, carbon abatement investment, and green innovation are plausible channels through which stock liquidity drives carbon emissions reduction. We further find that the sensitivity of corporate climate performance to improved stock liquidity becomes stronger following the Paris Agreement. Overall, we uncover new evidence on the impact of stock liquidity on corporate climate performance, expanding our understanding of the role of financial markets towards a greener economy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101389"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143378699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Athina Petropoulou , Vasileios Pappas , Steven Ongena , Dimitrios Gounopoulos , Richard Fairchild
{"title":"The performance of FDIC-identified community banks","authors":"Athina Petropoulou , Vasileios Pappas , Steven Ongena , Dimitrios Gounopoulos , Richard Fairchild","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101394","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101394","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In recognizing the uniqueness of their business model, the FDIC launched a new community bank definition in 2012 (reaffirmed in 2020) that changed its approach to identifying this bank group. This paper examines the impact of this re-defined community bank status on bank performance. Using a quasi-difference-in-differences approach, the study finds that banks that obtain the community bank status exhibit greater financial stability and lower risk, with lending and deposit structures mediating these effects. These findings offer new insights into a \"warm glow\" effect brought by the re-classification, affecting the performance of these institutions. By assigning the community bank status, the FDIC may have tapped into the social and emotional significance tied to the word \"community\" for various stakeholders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101394"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bank diversity and financial contagion","authors":"Emmanuel Caiazzo , Alberto Zazzaro","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101392","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101392","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper analyzes financial contagion in a banking system where banks are linked to each other by interbank claims and common assets. We find that asset commonality makes banking systems more vulnerable to idiosyncratic liquidity shocks and helps to determine which interbank network structures are resistant to contagion. When the degree of commonality is homogeneous across banks, the complete interbank network, in which each bank borrows evenly from all the others, displays the usual robust-yet-fragile property. However, in the more general case of heterogeneous common asset holdings the complete interbank network is less resilient than other incomplete networks but not necessarily the most fragile. We also show that the degree and variability of asset commonality between banks and the way this intertwines with the cross-holdings of interbank deposits have important implications for macroprudential regulation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101392"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143420373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A network approach to interbank contagion risk in South Africa","authors":"Pierre Nkou Mananga , Shiqiang Lin , Hairui Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101386","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101386","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate the resilience of the South African banking sector by applying a dynamic agent-based model and the DebtRank algorithm. In contrast to previous studies focusing on listed banks, our methodology includes both listed and non-listed institutions that make up the banking industry, thereby capturing the systemic importance and vulnerability of all banks within the interbank market network. Our findings indicate that while larger banks exhibit greater systemic importance, a statistically significant correlation exists between a bank’s interbank-lending-to-equity ratio and vulnerability. Moreover, a bank’s size and specific interbank activities influence its systemic contribution, both in terms of importance and vulnerability. These insights offer policymakers an empirically grounded framework for improving financial stability monitoring and risk mitigation efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101386"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143201032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does digital transformation enhance bank soundness? Evidence from Chinese commercial banks","authors":"Haifeng Hu , Tao Wei , Aiping Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101374","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2025.101374","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Compared with the previous literature on external FinTech, this paper is more interested in the role played by bank FinTech. On the basis of panel data from Chinese commercial banks spanning 2010–2021, this paper investigates the impact of digital transformation on bank soundness and its potential mechanisms. The empirical findings demonstrate a positive association between digital transformation and bank soundness, driven primarily by strategic and management digitization. Mechanistic analysis indicates that digital transformation improves bank soundness by mitigating risk-taking behavior and promoting diversification. The positive effect of digital transformation is more pronounced in state-owned and joint-stock banks, banks with higher liquidity mismatch and in the subsamples with greater levels of external FinTech development and economic policy uncertainty. Additional analysis suggests that digital transformation can still enhance bank soundness even in the presence of relatively lenient monetary and macroprudential policies, highlighting the harmonization and complementarity between internal innovation from digital transformation and external regulatory policies in maintaining banking stability. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature on bank FinTech, which focuses on the factors influencing bank stability. This study also provides a novel explanation for the relationship between financial innovation and financial stability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101374"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143143410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Banks, freedom, and political connections: New evidence from around the world","authors":"Bartłomiej Cegłowski , Krzysztof Jackowicz , Łukasz Kozłowski , Iwa Kuchciak","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2024.101353","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2024.101353","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how various facets of social and political freedom shape the impact of political connections on bank lending. Using a new dataset covering the period 2007–2018 and more than 100 countries, we find that the establishment of political connections stimulates lending, but only in countries with constrained media freedom and restricted freedom of association and expression, as well as in those scoring low on political rights and civil liberties. These results suggest that social and political freedom constitute critical factors that limit the resource-allocation distortions caused by political connections.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101353"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142699292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unlocking strategic alliances: The role of common institutional blockholders in promoting collaboration and trust","authors":"Thomas J. Chemmanur , Yao Shen , Jing Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.jfs.2024.101350","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jfs.2024.101350","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the role of common institutional blockholders (CIBs) in promoting strategic alliances and facilitating the transfer of human capital between alliance partner firms. We find that firms are more likely to form strategic alliances (including research and development (R&D), licensing, manufacturing, and marketing alliances) when they share CIBs with a larger proportion of their industry peers. To establish a causal relationship, we exploit the exogenous shocks to CIB ownership induced by annual Russell 1000/2000 index reconstitutions. Our firm-pair-level analysis indicates that two firms are more likely to form alliances when they share a CIB. Additionally, we show that R&D alliance partner firms connected through CIBs exhibit greater across-partner redeployment of R&D-related human capital than partner firms without CIB connections. Overall, our findings underscore the significance of common institutional blockholder ownership in reducing the distrust that hinders strategic alliance formation and in realizing the economic benefits of such alliances.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48027,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Financial Stability","volume":"76 ","pages":"Article 101350"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142699291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}