How binding is supervisory guidance? Evidence from the European calendar provisioning

We examine whether banks respond differently to the adoption of a supervisory guidance as compared to a similar regulatory action. By exploiting the staggered and distinct supervisory and regulatory implementation of the European Calendar Provision, we indeed document that while this reform achieved the intended overall goal of reducing European banks' nonperforming loans ratios, its effect materialized during the initial release of the ECB supervisory guidance, rather than following its adoption as a Pillar 1 regulation. That is, the subsequent formalization of this supervisory initiative within a regulatory framework achieved limited economic results, while eliminating any residual flexibility for the regulatory authority concerning the degree to which the calendar provisioning should be enforced.