Prudential policy spillovers: How do international bank flows react to French policies?

Most of prudential regulations apply to national institutions while, in practice, banks operate at the global level, generating international banking flows which are not comprehensively captured by policies with a domestic remit. This may give rise to spillovers, i.e., effects not considered ex ante in the objectives and/or constraints of authorities in charge of prudential policy, the effectiveness of which may be harmed. Using BIS data on foreign bank lending over a large sample of countries, we investigate international spillovers from French prudential policies. Overall, we show that French prudential policies entail a reduction in foreign banks' lending to French residents. Yet some measures may lead to undesired leakages that potentially undermine authorities' goals: foreign bank affiliates’ exposure to France rose by 1.1% (1.9 Bn USD) on average over 2011–17 owing to the implementation of Basel capital requirements.