Risk allocation through securitization: Evidence from non-performing loans

Employing a unique and hand-collected sample of 648 true sale loan securitization transactions issued by 57 stock-listed banks across the EU-12 plus Switzerland over the period from 1997 to 2010, this paper empirically analyzes the relationship between true sale loan securitization and the issuing banks’ non-performing loans to total assets ratios. Overall, we provide evidence for a negative impact of securitization on NPL exposures suggesting that banks predominantly used securitization as an instrument of credit risk transfer and diversification. In addition, the analysis at hand reveals a time-sensitive relationship between securitization and NPL exposures. While we observe an even stronger NPL-reducing effect through securitization during the non-crisis periods, the effect reverses during and after the global financial crisis suggesting that banks were forced to provide credit enhancement and employ securitization as a funding management tool. Along with the results from a variety of sensitivity analyses our study provides important implications for the recent debate on reducing NPL exposures of European banks by revitalizing the European securitization market.