Among the problems usually attributed to the banking regulation, two are clearly more demanding, because of their intrinsic nature and by the frequency which they are cited: the contingency of credit due to the reduction in the loans and lending volumes, and the excessive growth of government bonds in banks assets composition. The current study is based on data of the five major Brazilian retail banks, and investigates the changes in their assets and capital structures in the last years, due to the regulation of capital requirements in the context of The 1998 Basel Accord. Data from 1990 to 2002 accounting reports have been collected, and the study was build using time series analysis and linear regressions. The results suggest new evidences about the effective influence of regulatory measures on the capital and assets structures of banks.
Banking regulation; Basel accord; capital structure; public bonds; banking credit
