Bank Acquisitiveness and Financial Crisis Vulnerability

We investigate the relation between European bank acquisitiveness during the period 1990-2006 and the vulnerability of banks to the financial crisis. Our main tests use distance to default and Z-score ratios to estimate banks impact from the financial crisis in terms of bankruptcy risk and solvency. The findings shed new light on whether bank acquisitions really did contribute towards weakness; and suggest that only acquisitions of investment banking assets increased risk, while acquisition of retail banking assets actually lowered solvency risk.
Keywords: Financial Crisis; Mergers and Acquisitions; Probability of Default; Solvency; Investment Banking.
JEL Codes: G10; G21; G34.