A banki hitelezést meghatározó tényezok - középpontban a bankok helyzete és a makrokörnyezet/DRIVERS OF BANK LENDING IN HUNGARY - THE ROLES OF BANK-SPECIFIC AND MACRO FACTORS

The lending activity of the banking system remained subdued six years after the onset of the crisis. The author constructs a novel panel dataset with data on 11 Hungarian banks from 1999 to 2013 to examine the main bank-specific factors behind this trend. It is found that over a longer horizon, lending activity is supported by sound funding positions (i. e. loan to deposit ratio). Other types of liquidity risk, such as reliance on the FX swap market, also have negative effects on loan growth. Foreign ownership in itself does not impact lending significantly, but the lending of subsidiaries can be affected by the characteristics of their parent group. Banks belonging to a relatively profitable, better capitalized parent group in a safer funding position tend to lend more in Hungary. These relations were affected by the crisis. Solvency measures after 2009 became more crucial in lending activity and the significance of liquidity measures decreased somewhat.