Our website has detected that you are using an outdated browser that will prevent you
from accessing
certain features. An upgrade is recommended to improve you browsing experience.
The bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in South Africa
Published Date:
2024-11-25
Author:
Ekaterina Pirozhkova, Nicola Viegi
Last Modified Date:
2024-11-25, 08:44 AM
Category:
Publications > Working Papers | What's New
This paper studies the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in South Africa where the bank loan-level data, which are typically used for this type of analysis, are unavailable. Supply-side changes in credit provision are measured with data on the composition of home-loan supply by banks versus nonbanks. High-frequency surprises in forward rate agreements are used to instrument for exogenous shifts in monetary policy in a proxy-structural vector autoregression model. The bank lending channel is found to be operative, as banks reduce the supply of home loans following monetary tightening, with a negative effect on the housing market. The effectiveness of the deposits channel is shown: banks widen the deposit spread after monetary tightening, and the volume of deposits shrinks. As retail deposits provide a unique, stable source of funding for banks, the deposits channel underlies the operativeness of the bank lending channel in South Africa, consistent with theory.