Do retail-oriented banks have less non-performing loans?

Abstract

We present empirical evidence that euro area banks following a retail-oriented financial intermediation business model exhibit a lower level of non-performing loans in their loan portfolio compared to the banks involved to a larger degree in market activities. This result is confirmed separately for the subsets of banks operating in distress and non-distress countries. We primarily utilise a business model classification that is underpinned by granular confidential supervisory data collected in the context of the EU Single Supervisory Mechanism. We control for macroeconomic developments, a number of bank-specific determinants and endogeneity, using an instrumental variables approach. Our results remain robust to the application of a wide range of specifications and estimation methods.