Bank capital and liquidity creation in Sub-Saharan Africa: the role of quality institutions

Purpose - This study investigates the relationship between bank capital and liquidity creation and further examines the effect that institutional quality has on this relationship in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Design/methodology/approach - The data comprise 41 universal banks in nine SSA countries from 2010 to 2022. The study employs the two-step system generalized methods of moments and further uses alternative estimators such as the fixed-effect and two-stage least squares methods. Findings - The empirical results show that bank capital has a direct positive and significant effect on liquidity creation. In addition, the positive effect of bank capital on liquidity creation is enhanced, particularly in a strong institutional environment. The results imply that nonconstraining capital regulatory policies bolster bank solvency, improve risk-absorption capacity and increase liquidity creation. Practical implications - This study has several policy implications. First, it provides empirical evidence on the position of banks in SSA on the financial fragility and risk-absorption hypothesis of bank capital and liquidity creation debates. This study shows that the effect of bank capital on liquidity creation in SSA countries is positive and supports the risk-absorption hypothesis. Second, this study highlights that a country's quality institutions can complement bank capital to increase liquidity creation. In addition, this study highlights that nonconstraining capital regulatory policies will bolster bank solvency, improve risk-absorption capacity and increase liquidity creation. Originality/value - The novelty of this study is that it introduces the country's quality institutional environment into bank capital and liquidity creation links for the first time in SSA.