We also undertake a more rigorous econometric assessment based on both cross-country and time-series variation, using panel regression techniques. We regress foreign currency funding flows on the global risk factor, changes in exchange and interest rates, loans, and deposits in foreign currencies. A key point to consider is an interaction term between the global factor and the average net currency exposure, as this captures the role of exposure in determining the impact of global factors on foreign currency funding. We find that the global risk factor is not significant on its own, but is significant when interacted with the country’s net foreign exchange exposure, in line with our theoretical prediction. This is particularly the case in the subsample of emerging European economies.
Interestingly, the results only hold when the global factor is measured by US broker dealer leverage. Using the VIX or other global financial proxies from the literature leads to insignificant interaction terms. While the VIX has been quite popular as an empirical proxy for global risk sentiment, it captures conditions in the stock market that could be a poor proxy for risk tolerance in other segments of the financial markets, such as banking.
ConclusionThe role of global drivers of the financial cycle has received a lot of attention in recent years. Our analysis suggests that the empirical link from global factors to cross-border bank funding, and possibly, to capital flows more broadly, depends on country specific characteristics of financial institutions. We have stressed the role of foreign currency exposure of domestic financial institutions. This exposure can be long as well as short, with very different implications for funding flows in times of risk reduction. The foreign currency exposures of domestic institutions are hence not just indicators of a country’s vulnerability to capital flow volatility, but may constitute drivers of this volatility in their own right.
Authors’ note: The views expressed here are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the institutions with which they are affiliated.
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Endnotes[1] Notably, the valuation effects and impact on expected profits of movements in exchange rates matter qualitatively for foreign funding demand. These channels are similar to the risk-taking channel described in Bruno and Shin (2015a).
[2] These are further split between Swiss francs and other foreign currencies.
[3] We discuss the role of off-balance sheet hedging in more detail in Krogstrup and Tille (2018).