Resumen de Bank asset securitization before the crisis: liquidity, bank type and risk transfer as determinants
Martí Sagarra García, Miguel Ángel García Cestona, Josep Rialp Criado
This paper analyzes the determinants of asset securitization in Spanish banks during the period 1999-2007. We distinguish savings banks (Cajas) from the rest of banks, mainly commercial banks, and compare both their decision to securitize or not, and the volume of securitization. Asset securitization seems to play a key role at explaining both the sector exponential growth and the deep crisis that followed. Due to the special nature of Cajas, we focus our study in these institutions, highlighting the role of some factors, such as the regulatory capital and the risk transfer. We find that those banks with greater credit risk exposure and lower liquidity are more likely to securitize, and they do it in greater amounts during the boom (pre-crisis) period. In contrast, we do not find a significant role of capital in terms of securitizing. Furthermore, for the specific case of Cajas, the only significant determinants are risk and liquidity.
