The determinants of bank margins revisited: A note on the effects of diversification

Most of the theoretical and empirical literature on bank margins has dealt solely with interest margins. Applying the seminal Ho-Saunders model (JFQA, 1981) to a multi-output framework, we show that the relationship between bank margins and market power (controlling for risk) varies significantly across bank specializations. Using a set of both accounting margins and New Empirical Industrial Organization (NEIO) margins, we find that market power rises significantly with output diversification towards non-traditional activities. These results contribute to explain the paradoxical coexistence of decreasing interest margins and higher market power found in previous studies.bank margins, specialization, market structure.

Galois Connections between Semimodules and Applications in Data Mining

In [1] a generalisation of Formal Concept Analysis was introduced with data mining applications in mind, K-Formal Concept Analysis, where incidences take values in certain kinds of semirings, instead of the standard Boolean carrier set. A fundamental result was missing there, namely the second half of the equivalent of the main theorem of Formal Concept Analysis. In this continuation we introduce the structural lattice of such generalised contexts, providing a limited equivalent to the main theorem of K-Formal Concept Analysis which allows to interpret the standard version as a privileged case in yet another direction. We motivate our results by providing instances of their use to analyse the confusion matrices of multiple-input multiple-output classifiers

New evidence of scope economies among lending,deposit-taking, loan commitments and mutual fund activities.

Financial innovation and technology affect bank cost, revenue and profits. Most of the previous empirical studies have not found significant cost, profit or revenue scope economies or output pair complementarities either between traditional and non-traditional banking products or between traditional activities themselves. We study scope economies and output pair complementarities in a ‘broad banking’ environment: the Spanish banking sector. The results indicate that after including off-balance sheet business in the output mix, cost and profit scope economies rise and are statistically significant. Besides, consumer valuation of financial services is only detected when the off-balance sheet business is added to the output definition.banking, scope economies, off-balance sheet.

Scope Economies and Competition Beyond the Balance Sheet: a ‘broad banking’ Experience

There is a recent trend in banking research aiming to assess how financial innovation and technology are affecting bank cost, revenue and profits. Most of the studies have not found significant cost, profit or revenue complementarities either between traditional and non-traditional banking products or between traditional activities themselves. We study complementarities in a ‘broad banking’ environment: the Spanish banking sector. The results indicate that after including off-balance sheet business in the output mix, cost and profit scope economies increase significantly. Besides, consumer valuation of financial services is only detected when the off-balance sheet business is added to the output definition.banking, cost, profit, scope economies, off-balance sheet.

The finance-growth nexus: a regional perspective

Recent cross-country studies suggest that finance and economic growth are significantly related. The characteristics and geographical scope of this relationship has become central to explain differences in economic development. Two concepts are highly relevant in this context. Firstly, financial deepening, that involves the development of traditional and non-traditional financial services in these territories. Secondly, bank dependence, which makes households and firms rely heavily on banks. Employing dynamic causality and panel data techniques on a sample of Spanish banks during 1993-1999 we find that -at a regional level- economic growth predicted financial deepening in this period which suggests that banks locate and distribute new financial products mostly in well developed territories. Regarding bank dependence, bank lending specialization appears to be a key issue in financing firms and households compared to other bank specializations. According to previous studies, lending dependence confer banks a special role in promoting regional economic growth in bank-based financial systems.Banks, financial deepening, bank dependence, regional growth.

Regulating two-sided markets: an empirical investigation

We study the effect of government encouraged or mandated interchange fee ceilings on consumer and merchant adoption and usage of payment cards in an economy where card acceptance is far from complete. We believe that we are the first to use bank- level data to study the impact of interchange fee regulation. We find that consumer and merchant welfare improved because of increased consumer and merchant adoption leading to greater usage of payment cards. We also find that bank revenues increased when interchange fees were reduced although these results are critically dependent on merchant acceptance being far from complete at the beginning and during the implementation of interchange fee ceilings. In addition, there is most likely a threshold interchange fee below which social welfare decreases although our data currently does not allow us to quantify it.Payment systems ; Consumers

Regulating two-sided markets: an empirical investigation

We study the effect of government encouraged or mandated interchange fee ceilings on consumer and merchant adoption and usage of payment cards in an economy where card acceptance is far from complete. We believe that we are the first to use bank-level data to study the impact of interchange fee regulation. We find that consumer and merchant welfare improved because of increased consumer and merchant adoption leading to greater usage of payment cards. We also find that bank revenues increased when interchange fees were reduced although these results are critically dependent on merchant acceptance being far from complete at the beginning and during the implementation of interchange fee ceilings. In addition, there is most likely a threshold interchange fee below which social welfare decreases although our data currently does not allow us to quantify it. JEL Classification: L11, G21, D53consumer payment choice, merchant payment adoption, network competition

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