Public banks and banking competition

Abstract

How margins of private banks are affected by public banks’ conduct is a relevant question for both competition policy and credit market development in emerging economies. In this article, this question is addressed using an exogenous variation on the conduct of public banks between 2008 and 2015 when a pro-state government implemented a broad counter-cyclical policy in Brazil on major credit lines financed by the National Development Bank (BNDES). Given this event, we estimate the best reply function of private banks in a mixed oligopolistic market structure where private and public firms differ in their objective function. Using a detailed data set from a large BNDES credit line, in a dynamic panel data, results point to a significant but low reaction of private financial institutions. In the long run, a private bank’s margin is reduced by 0.03 p.p for 1 p.p lower final interest rate set by state-owned institutions. In this sense, the reduction in margins observed between 2008-2014 is more associated with a lower subsidized funding cost.