Monetary policy, capital regulation and bank risk-taking: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the monetary policy's risk-taking channel in China's banking sector and reveals how capital buffer affects this channel in both theoretical and empirical analyses. We find that well-capitalized banks undertake less risk than those under-capitalized, which is opposite to the empirical evidence from the US. After comparing previous related theories, we point out the pattern of risk-shifting effect in China is different from that in the US. Meanwhile, we provide more substantial comparison between different types of banks. First, in the face of falling interest rates, state-owned commercial banks will undertake more risk than others. Second, the deterring effect of capital on risk varies little between banks. Third, banks short of capital can significantly reduce their risk-taking by replenishing capital through several channels.