The capital structure determinants of the Portuguese banks (2008-2017)

• Autor(a) principal: Castro, Nuno Ricardo da Gama Vieira Ferreira de
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/20035
• topic: Capital structure; Leverage; Equity; Regulatory capital; Banca portuguesa; Estrutura de capital; Alavancagem; Capital próprio; Capital regulatório

Since the beginning of the global financial crisis in 2008, bank soundness has been repeatedly questioned. In line with this doubt that has been floating over the banking system, several academic studies have been addressing this issue through various approaches including the capital structure perspective. With regard to the Portuguese banking system, the last decade has meant for the Portuguese banks one of the most complex periods in their history, with their solvency and soundness repeatedly questioned. Thus, without ever losing sight on the economic environment of the recent years, this paper aims to analyze the level of interdependence between the financial leverage of Portuguese banks and the set of variables that have empirically shown a significant impact on this indicator. A multiple linear regression model was used to assess the relationship between the dependent variable (financial leverage) and the set of selected explanatory variables. The results indicate that there is a significant impact of regulatory capital, the global financial crisis and the eurozone crisis on the leverage levels of the Portuguese banks.