Banking market integration in Europe and insolvency law

Despite considerable progress towards a Banking Union in the euro area, banks in the EU continue to be subject to widely varying insolvency law as applied to their lending customers. This paper provides evidence that bank interest margins tend to be higher in countries with weaker loan enforcement. Higher bank interest margins are a sign of less efficient bank intermediation, and hence the evidence of this paper suggests that bank intermediation is less efficient in countries with weaker loan enforcement. This policy-induced national variability in bank efficiency is incompatible with banking union.