Document de Recherche du Laboratoire d’Économie d’Orléans Working Paper Series, Economic Research Department of the University of Orléans (LEO), France DR LEO 2019-10 Banking sector concentration, competition and financial stability: the case of the Baltic countries Juan Carlos CUESTAS Yannick LUCOTTE Nicolas REIGL Mise en ligne / Online : 17/11/2019 Laboratoire d’Économie d’Orléans Collegium DEG Rue de Blois - BP 26739 45067 Orléans Cedex 2 Tél. : (33) (0)2 38 41 70 37 e-mail :
[email protected] www.leo-univ-orleans.fr/ Banking sector concentration, competition and financial stability: the case of the Baltic countries Juan Carlos Cuestas∗ Yannick Lucotte† Nicolas Reigl‡ November 15, 2019 Abstract This paper empirically assesses the potential nonlinear relationship be- tween competition and bank risk for a sample of commercial banks in the Baltic countries over the period 2000-2014. Competition is measured by two alternative indexes, the Lerner index and the market share, while we consider the Z-score and loan loss reserves as proxies for bank risk. In line with the theoretical predictions of Martinez-Miera and Repullo (2010), we find an inverse U-shaped relationship between competition and financial stability. This then means that above a certain threshold, the lack of competition is likely to exacerbate the individual risk-taking behaviour of banks, and could be detrimental to the stability of the banking sector in the Baltic countries. The threshold is around 0.60 for the Lerner index, and close to 50% for market share in terms of assets. The policy implica- tions are that the existence of such a threshold suggests that the future evolution of the structure of the banking industry in these countries is of critical importance.