Bank Capital and Lending in Brazil

This paper investigates the relationship between bank capital and lending in the Brazilian market from 2003 to 2012, by adapting the methodology used by Berrospide and Edge (2010). Initially, we estimate a long-term target capital, actively managed by each bank, and then we compute the banks' capital surpluses. In a second step, we investigate whether this capital surplus is related to the change in non-earmarked credit using panel data regressions. The results show a positive relationship between the change in loans and the capital surplus, stronger in the second part of the sample period (after September/2008), but yet economically modest, contradicting the assumption of constant leverage. Similar results are obtained using direct observable accounting indicators of bank capital. There is no significant relationship between capital and credit growth in governmental banks.