Background and problem: Recent banking and financial crises has undoubtedly stressed the importance of a sound and well-functioning banking system. The banking industry is in critical need of strong governance stemming from their opaque and complex business along with the high social costs incurred in the event of bank failure. Previous research has shown that credit rating changes serve as a governance mechanism on the U.S. banking market, affecting real economic decision-making. However, no existing research has been conducted in an European context, rendering the objective of this thesis. Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the governance effects of credit rating changes on banks within the European banking market. Methodology: The objective of this thesis is achieved by using a novel and comprehensive data set comprising credit rating changes and financial accounting variables of 202 banks on the European banking market between the time period 1997-2011. A quantitative method is implemented to examine banks’ financial accounting variables in the event of credit rating changes. In order to measure the isolated effect from a credit rating change, the difference-in- differences econometric approach in combination with a Propensity Score Matching procedure will be conducted. Conclusions: The results from this research provide numerous evidence that credit rating changes have consistent governance effects on the European banking market. In the event of a credit rating downgrade, banks on the European banking market decrease in size and set aside more capital as reserves for non performing loans. In the event of a credit rating upgrade, banks increase in size and re-allocate assets, providing evidence that these banks have a more optimistic view of their financial conditions. The findings in this thesis are in line with previous research on the U.S. banking market, however, banks on the European banking market seems to have, on average, a more conservative attitude towards risk-taking in the event of a credit rating change.

Cette thèse examine l’impact de la structure actionnariale sur la structure du capital et la performance des banques commerciales européennes sur la période 2002-2010. Elle est composée de trois essais empiriques. Le premier chapitre teste l'effet de la divergence entre les droits de contrôle et les droits pécuniaires d'un actionnaire ultime sur l’ajustement du ratio du capital à son niveau optimal et sur l’offre de crédit par les banques. Les résultats montrent qu’en présence de divergence entre les droits de contrôle et les droits pécuniaires, les banques n’émettent pas du capital pour augmenter leur ratio et, au contraire, elles réduisent leur taille en ralentissant leur offre de prêts. Le chapitre 2 teste l’effet de cette divergence sur la rentabilité et le risque bancaires en temps normal et en temps de crise. Les résultats montrent que bien qu'une divergence entre les droits de contrôle et les droits pécuniaires soit associée en temps normal à une rentabilité plus faible et un risque plus élevé elle a, à contrario, amélioré la rentabilité et contribué à la résilience des banques pendant la crise financière de 2007-2008. Le troisième chapitre teste si le réseau des actionnaires auquel la banque est liée au sein d’une chaîne de contrôle affecte la relation entre la diversification et la performance. Les résultats montrent que la présence des investisseurs institutionnels dans les chaînes de contrôle aide les banques à tirer des bénéfices lorsqu’elles diversifient leurs activités. / This dissertation examines the role of ownership structure in explaining capital structure and performance of European commercial banks from 2002 to 2010. It comprises three empirical essays. The first chapter explores the effect of greater control rights than cash-flow rights of an ultimate owner on the bank’s capital ratio adjustment and its lending decisions. The results show that whenever control rights exceed cash-flow rights, banks do not issue equity to increase their capital ratio and, instead, downsize by mainly slowing their lending. Chapter 2 provides evidence on how the divergence between control and cash-flow rights affects bank profitability and risk during normal times and distress times. The findings emphasize that during normal times the divergence between control and cash-flow rights is associated with lower profitability and higher risk. Conversely, during the acute financial crisis period (2007-2008), such a divergence improves profitability and banks’ resilience to shocks. The third chapter takes into account differences in the strength of ownership network to which banks belong when assessing the effect of greater activity diversification on bank performance. The results show that diseconomies of diversification vanish the stronger is the ownership network surrounding the bank in the control chain. Such mitigating roles are attributable to the presence of domestic and foreign institutional owners in the pyramid.

Cette thèse est destinée à démontrer l’existence d’un principe de solidarité dans le cadre de l’Union bancaire européenne (UBE). Ce travail est divisé en trois chapitres. Le premier chapitre vise à retracer les différentes nuances qui caractérisent la sémantique du mot ‘solidarité’. Le deuxième chapitre est consacré à l’évaluation des dispositions des traités qui se réfèrent à la notion de solidarité. Le troisième chapitre analyse la façon dont le principe de solidarité est développé dans l’UBE. En conclusion, la thèse tente de prouver que dans ce nouveau cadre juridique européen, la « règle » continue d’être la non-solidarité; en revanche, l’ « exception » continue d’être la solidarité, comme cela a été confirmé par les nouveaux outils, qui pourraient être déclenchées par l’autorité compétente uniquement en présence de difficultés sérieuses dans le secteur bancaire. / The thesis is intended to demonstrate the existence of a principle of solidarity in the European Banking Union (EBU). This work is divided into three chapters. The first chapter aims to retraces which are the various nuances that characterize the semantics of the word ‘solidarity’. The second chapter is devoted to the assessment of the provisions of the Treaties which refer to the concept of solidarity. The third chapter analyses how it is declined the principle of solidarity in the EBU, which has introduced innovative methods to manage the resolution of the banks in distress. In conclusion, the thesis tries to prove that also in this renewed EU legal framework, the ‘rule’ continues to be the non-solidarity; by contrast, the ‘exception’ continues to be the solidarity as confirmed by the new tools, which could be activated by the competent authority only in presence of serious difficulties in the banking sector.

Submitted by Sebastian Schramm (sebastian.schramm@yahoo.de) on 2014-10-28T19:37:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Master_Thesis_Sebastian_Schramm_FGV-Version.pdf: 679531 bytes, checksum: 38d557a86bc4fb61a1860f061d88b2b5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luana Rodrigues (luana.rodrigues@fgv.br) on 2014-11-05T11:30:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Master_Thesis_Sebastian_Schramm_FGV-Version.pdf: 679531 bytes, checksum: 38d557a86bc4fb61a1860f061d88b2b5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-05T11:46:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Master_Thesis_Sebastian_Schramm_FGV-Version.pdf: 679531 bytes, checksum: 38d557a86bc4fb61a1860f061d88b2b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-06 / As Basel III represents a true regulatory paradigm shift in many respects, this paper examines a sample of 81 European banks to detect to what extent the impact of Basel III is already perceptible on alternative business models. It finds out that there have been only minor business model adjustments due to Basel III, while the main changes between 2010 and 2013 have taken place because of other exogenous factors, such as the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Due to long observation- and transition periods, the major business model changes as response to Basel III are still ahead. / O acordo Basel III representa, em diversos aspectos, uma verdadeira mudança no paradigma regulatório. Este trabalho examina uma amostra composta por 81 bancos europeus para detectar até que ponto o impacto do Basel III é já perceptível em modelos de negócios alternativos. Descobre-se que os ajustes nos modelos de negócios causados pelo Basel III são mínimos, enquanto que as principais mudanças entre 2010 e 2013 deveram-se a outros factores exógenos, como por exemplo a crise da dívida soberana europeia. Devido à longa observação e aos períodos de transição, as maiores mudanças nos modelos de negócios como consequência do Basel III estarão ainda para acontecer.

The diploma thesis deals with stress testing as a specific tool which is used by European Banking Association for banking sector financial stability assessment. The main aim is to provide reader with analysis of EBA stress testing. Both the EBA methodology and 2016 results are analyzed in second part. Due to high costs spend on stress testing process I consider practical usage from the bank point of view as very important. This issue is discussed in fourth part of this thesis.

The current era of intensive globalisation, digitisation and expansion of FinTech companies and latter the impacts of a recent global financial crisis support further concentration processes within the banking sector. This dissertation thesis explores the impacts of global financial crisis on the European banking centres on the level of major banking centres and tiny banking centres with special regard on the development in three main European macroregions - Western Europe, Southern Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. The banking centres were analysed according financial indicators of banks headquartered in particular banking centre in the indicators capturing size, profitability and the level of risk during the period 2004-2015. Counterintuitively, the European leading banking centres (London, Paris and Frankfurt), despite their extensive exposure to capital markets, dispay a high level of resilience, which contrasts with the evolution of the other major Western European centres, which clearly lagged behind the European leaders. From a macro-regional perspective, banking centres in Western Europe exhibited the first signals of both the crisis and the recovery, which were subsequently diffused across Europe. Surprisingly, the profitability of low-ranking banking centres in Central and Eastern...

Στην παρούσα διατριβή αναπτύσσεται ένα ολοκληρωμένο μεθοδολογικό πλαίσιο για την ανάλυση της παραγωγικής αποτελεσματικότητας επιχειρήσεων που λειτουργούν σε περιβάλλον πολλαπλής τεχνολογικής ετερογένειας. Με βάση την έννοια των μετα-μεταορίων, ορίζονται μέτρα αποτελεσματικότητας και τεχνολογικών χασμάτων σε κάθε επίπεδο τεχνολογικής ετερογένειας, τα οποία, σε ένα δεύτερο στάδιο, «αποδομούνται» σε παράγοντες σταθερούς ως προς τις εισροές και παράγοντες σταθερούς ως προς τις εκροές. Η προτεινόμενη μεθοδολογία χρησιμοποιείται για την διερεύνηση της παραγωγικής αποτελεσματικότητας των ευρωπαϊκών τραπεζικών επιχειρήσεων, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη πιθανή τεχνολογική ετερογένεια που οφείλεται στα ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά (i) των εθνικών τραπεζικών συστημάτων και (ii) των τραπεζικών τύπων ειδίκευσης. Οι επιδράσεις των εν λόγω πηγών τεχνολογικής ετερογένειας στην τραπεζική αποτελεσματικότητα εξετάζονται ξεχωριστά, σε ένα πλαίσιο ανάλυσης τεχνολογικής ετερογένειας ενός επιπέδου, και συνδυαστικά, σε ένα πλαίσιο ανάλυσης ιεραρχημένης τεχνολογικής ετερογένειας δύο επιπέδων. Τα αποτελέσματα της σχετικής εμπειρικής ανάλυσης ερμηνεύονται με βάση την «θεωρία της γνώσης», δίνοντας ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στον ρόλο της διάχυσης της γνώσης, της ικανότητας απορρόφησης και του στρατηγικού προσανατολισμού των ευρωπαϊκών τραπεζικών επιχειρήσεων. / In the context of the present thesis, a methodological framework is developed for analysing the productive efficiency of firms that operate in a multilevel technologically heterogeneous environment. Based on the meta-metafrontier notion, efficiency and technology gaps measures are defined at each level of technology heterogeneity and are decomposed into input- and output-invariant components. The proposed methodology is used for the investigation of productive efficiency of European banking firms, taking into account potential technology heterogeneity due to the particular characteristics of (i) the national banking systems and (ii) the specialization types of banking firms. The effects of the aforementioned heterogeneity sources on bank efficiency are examined separately, in a single-level technology heterogeneity framework, and simultaneously, in a hierarchical technology heterogeneity framework of two levels. The results of the relevant empirical analysis are interpreted using the “knowledge-based theory”, emphasising on the role of knowledge spillovers, the banking firms’ absorptive capacity and strategic orientation.

L’objet de cette thèse est d’analyser l’évolution du marché des paiements de détail avec en toile de fond la constitution d’un espace unique pour les paiements en Europe. Notre analyse révèle notamment que ce marché évolue selon la théorie de la Reine Rouge ; en effet, sous le poids de la concurrence, les prestataires de service ne cessent de créer des moyens de paiement de plus en plus innovants afin de maintenir leur part de marché. Paradoxalement, la demande, elle, évolue plus lentement, essentiellement à cause des habitudes difficiles à changer. Pour la dynamiser, régulateur et industrie bancaire ont mis en œuvre de nombreux moyens. Notre étude révèle ainsi que bien que les facteurs sociodémographiques, technologiques et économiques déterminant les comportements de paiement varient et n’ont pas le même impact d’un pays à un autre, certains Etats présentent néanmoins suffisamment d’homogénéité pour appartenir à une même zone de paiement optimale. En outre, nous démontrons que l’harmonisation des pratiques bancaires et des réglementations mise en place pour la réalisation du marché unique a conduit à une convergence des comportements de paiement en Europe. Par ailleurs, en analysant le cas particulier des paiements par carte, nous développons un modèle multi-agents permettant de mettre en évidence l’importance des pratiques tarifaires telles que la commission d’interchange ou la règle de non-discrimination sur la concurrence entre instruments, intermédiaires et systèmes de paiement. L’expérimentation artificielle de ce modèle dévoile les conditions nécessaires à l’efficacité de la réglementation de ces pratiques par l’Etat. / The purpose of present thesis is to study the evolution of the retail payment market. This work is set against a backdrop of the creation of a single payment area in Europe. Our analysis reveals that this market is subject to the Red Queen dilemma; indeed, because of intense competition, payment service providers are forced to a constant evolution of technology in order to maintain their market share. Paradoxically, the demand for payment instruments tends to move slowly, basically because habits are difficult to change. To improve the dynamism of the demand response to innovation, regulator and banking industry have implemented new policies and procedures that encourage the development of trans-border payments. Thereby, although the sociodemographic, technological and economic factors which influence payment behaviours vary and don't have the same impact from one country to another, we find some remarkable homogeneity across countries that are eligible to form an optimal payment area. Besides, we show that the harmonization of the banking laws and products led to a convergence of the payment behaviours in Europe. In addition, by analyzing the case of the payment card industry, we develop an agent-based model which highlights the effects of the tariff practices such as the interchange fee or the no-surcharge rule, on competition within and between payment systems. The computational simulation of this model reveals necessary conditions to achieve the desired result of the regulation of these practices.

Diese Dissertation untersucht die Auswirkungen von Bankenkrisen auf die Realwirtschaft in drei unabhängigen Kapiteln. Kapitel 1 klassifiziert die geografische Diversifikation einer Großzahl von Banken, anhand deren international syndizierten Kreditportfolios. Ergebnisse zeigen ein höheres Kreditangebot durch diversifizierte Banken während Bankenkrisen die sich in Kreditnehmerländern ereignen. Dieses relativ stabilere Kreditangebot führt zu höherem Investitions- und Beschäftigungswachstum von Unternehmen. Eine weiterführende Unterteilung von Banken anhand derer Nationalität zeigt eine Rangfolge auf: diversifizierte inländische Banken erweisen sich als die stabilste und ausländische Banken mit geringer Diversifikation als die instabilste Finanzierungsquelle. In Kapitel 2 analysiere ich die Rolle der industriellen Spezialisierung von Banken in der Transmission von Finanzierungsshocks. Anhand der Ergebnisse schützen Banken Unternehmen die Teil ihrer spezialisierten Industrien sind vor der Bankenkrise und reduzieren ihre Kreditvergabe hingegen am stärksten an Industrien, in welchen sie weniger spezialisiert sind. Darüber hinaus finde ich Evidenz für Übertragungseffekte durch reduzierte Kreditvergabe auch in Nicht-Krisenländern. Dieser Übertragungseffekt ist jedoch gedämpft für Unternehmen aus spezialisierten Industrien. Kapitel 3 untersucht die Effekte von Bankenrettungen in Europa auf die globalen Kreditströme. Gerettete Banken weisen einen höheren Anstieg des Anteils an inländischen Unternehmen in der Kreditvergabe auf als nicht-gerettete Banken. Das negative Kreditangebot für ausländische Unternehmen führt zu einer Verringerung des Absatz- und Beschäftigungswachstums. Im inländischen Markt hingegen führt die Bankenrettung zu einer Verzerrung der Kreditallokation, hin zu größeren und weniger innovativen Unternehmen. Darüber hinaus dokumentiere ich eine stärkere politische Einflussnahme, da Kontrollrechte im Zuge der Bankenrettung an die Regierung übertragen werden. / This thesis investigates the effect of banking crises on real economic outcomes in three independent chapters. In chapter one, I classify a large sample of banks according to the geographic diversification of their international syndicated loan portfolio. Results show that diversified banks maintain higher loan supply during banking crises in borrower countries. The positive loan supply effects lead to higher investment and employment growth for firms. Further distinguishing banks by nationality reveals a pecking order: diversified domestic banks are the most stable source of funding, while foreign banks with little diversification are the most fickle. In chapter two, I show that banks' industry specialization determines how banks transmit funding shocks during banking crises to borrowers and how they spill over to non-crisis countries. Results show that banks insulate their main industries from the banking crisis while they reduce lending most to their non-main industries. Moreover, I provide evidence on spillover effects, as banks hit by a banking crisis in one borrower country reduce lending to firms in non-crisis countries. However, this contagion effect is significantly weaker for firms in banks' main industries. In chapter three, I examine the effect of government support for European banks, such as recapitalizations on financial integration and firm outcomes. Results show that bailout banks increase their home bias in lending by a quarter more than non-bailout banks. In turn, the negative loan supply effect on discriminated foreign firms translates into lower sales and employment growth. In the home market, government support distorts credit allocation by shifting lending to larger, safer and less innovative firms. Moreover, I document that politicians gain influence over banks by transferring control rights to the government as part of the support scheme.