IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/115782.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bank income smoothing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from UK Banks

Author

Listed:
  • Ozili, Peterson K

Abstract

This paper examines the association between bank loan loss provisions and the pre-provisions earnings of UK banks during the first-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A positive co-movement between the two variables indicates evidence of income smoothing. The findings show that loan loss provision has an inverted V-shaped property during the first-wave COVID-19 pandemic. Loan loss provisions reached its highest level at the peak of the pandemic in the second quarter of 2020 and declined in the subsequent quarters. The regression results show a positive relationship between loan loss provisions and pre-provisions earnings during the pandemic quarters and in the pre-pandemic quarters. The positive relationship is stronger in the pandemic quarters and indicates evidence of higher income smoothing in the pandemic quarters. The correlation results also show a strong positive correlation between bank provisions and pre-provisions earnings in the pandemic period. In the individual bank analysis, three of the four systemic banks exhibit higher income smoothing during the pandemic quarters. The implication of the findings is that UK systemic banks engaged in earnings management as a coping mechanism to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on their profits.

Suggested Citation

  • Ozili, Peterson K, 2022. "Bank income smoothing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from UK Banks," MPRA Paper 115782, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:115782
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/115782/1/MPRA_paper_115782.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Altavilla, Carlo & Barbiero, Francesca & Boucinha, Miguel & Burlon, Lorenzo, 2023. "The Great Lockdown: Pandemic response policies and bank lending conditions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    2. Domenico Curcio & Iftekhar Hasan, 2015. "Earnings and capital management and signaling: the use of loan-loss provisions by European banks," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 26-50, January.
    3. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Alessi, Matteo & Di Colli, Stefano & Lopez, Juan Sergio, 2018. "Loan loss provisions and macroeconomic shocks: Some empirical evidence for italian banks during the crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 239-243.
    4. Bouvatier, Vincent & Lepetit, Laetitia & Strobel, Frank, 2014. "Bank income smoothing, ownership concentration and the regulatory environment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 253-270.
    5. Ashraf, Badar Nadeem, 2020. "Economic impact of government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: International evidence from financial markets," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    6. Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Pedraza, Alvaro & Ruiz-Ortega, Claudia, 2021. "Banking sector performance during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    7. Albulescu, Claudiu Tiberiu, 2021. "COVID-19 and the United States financial markets’ volatility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    8. Goodell, John W., 2020. "COVID-19 and finance: Agendas for future research," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    9. Danisman, Gamze Ozturk & Demir, Ender & Ozili, Peterson, 2021. "Loan loss provisioning of US banks: Economic policy uncertainty and discretionary behavior," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 923-935.
    10. Burak Dolar, 2016. "Income Smoothing Practices Of Us Banks Around The 2008 Financial Crisis," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Skała, Dorota, 2021. "Loan loss provisions and income smoothing – Do shareholders matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Aharon, David Y. & Siev, Smadar, 2021. "COVID-19, government interventions and emerging capital markets performance," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    3. Markus Eller & Reiner Martin & Lukas Vashold, 2021. "CESEE’s macroprudential policy response in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q1/21, pages 55-69.
    4. Ozili, Peterson Kitakogelu, 2021. "Bank earnings management using loan loss provisions: comparing the UK, France, South Africa and Egypt," MPRA Paper 108506, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Gu, Tiantian & Venkateswaran, Anand & Erath, Marc, 2023. "Impact of fiscal stimulus on volatility: A cross-country analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Guven, Murat & Cetinguc, Basak & Guloglu, Bulent & Calisir, Fethi, 2022. "The effects of daily growth in COVID-19 deaths, cases, and governments’ response policies on stock markets of emerging economies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2021. "Who should be afraid of infections? Pandemic exposure and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    8. Yousaf, Imran, 2021. "Risk transmission from the COVID-19 to metals and energy markets," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Aristei, David & Gallo, Manuela, 2019. "Loan loss provisioning by Italian banks: Managerial discretion, relationship banking, functional distance and bank risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 238-256.
    10. Albulena Shala & Valentin Toçi & Skender Ahmeti, 2020. "Income smoothing through loan loss provisions in south and Eastern European banks," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 38(2), pages 429-452.
    11. Feyen, Erik & Alonso Gispert, Tatiana & Kliatskova, Tatsiana & Mare, Davide S., 2021. "Financial Sector Policy Response to COVID-19 in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Pagano, Michael S. & Sedunov, John & Velthuis, Raisa, 2021. "How did retail investors respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? The effect of Robinhood brokerage customers on market quality," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    13. Mahata, Ajit & Rai, Anish & Nurujjaman, Md. & Prakash, Om, 2021. "Modeling and analysis of the effect of COVID-19 on the stock price: V and L-shape recovery," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 574(C).
    14. Al-Maadid, Alanoud & Alhazbi, Saleh & Al-Thelaya, Khaled, 2022. "Using machine learning to analyze the impact of coronavirus pandemic news on the stock markets in GCC countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    15. Ozili, Peterson K, 2017. "Bank Loan Loss Provisions Research: A Review," MPRA Paper 76495, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ozili, Peterson K, 2022. "Determinants of bank income smoothing using loan loss provisions in the United Kingdom," MPRA Paper 112047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Shabir, Mohsin & Jiang, Ping & Wang, Wenhao & Işık, Özcan, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic impact on banking sector: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    18. Omrane Guedhami & April Knill & William L. Megginson & Lemma W. Senbet, 2022. "The dark side of globalization: Evidence from the impact of COVID-19 on multinational companies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(8), pages 1603-1640, October.
    19. Piotr Lasak, 2021. "The Commercial Banking Sector in Eurozone after the Pandemic: The Paths to Recovery," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 1233-1246.
    20. Mert Topcu & Ibrahim Yagli & Furkan Emirmahmutoglu, 2021. "COVID-19 and stock market volatility: A time-varying perspective," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 1681-1689.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    banks; systemic risk; income smoothing; loan loss provisions; COVID-19; pandemic; earnings management; United Kingdom; Britain.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M42 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Auditing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:115782. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.