This study relates to the debate concerning the consequences of the presence of foreign banks in emerging countries. Specifically, this study investigates the role of the group of foreign banks in Brazil between 2005 and 2011, focusing on their activity on foreign exchange derivatives and credit markets. Additionally, it examines the impacts of the international financial crisis of 2008/2009 on bank behavior. The motivation behind this analysis lies on the role of credit and financial risk management on economic development. Foreign banks may impact the rate of growth of the domestic economy by improving credit access to firms. Foreign banks may also have a positive effect in emerging markets by offering foreign exchange derivatives to companies and investors, which are important tools among the set of risk management technologies. In Brazil, foreign banks account for almost a quarter of the supply of non-directed credit during the sample period. Although this analysis does not pertain to causal inference, it indicates that the financial crisis negatively affected the supply of loans by foreign banks, even more intensively and longer than domestic private banks. This observation suggests that the liquidity shock that occurred in developed markets was transmitted to the Brazilian economy. Nevertheless, in the post-crisis period, namely from the third quarter 2010 until the end of 2011, the growth rate of foreign banks' lending was larger than those of other banks. In the currency derivatives market, foreign banks, including the smaller ones, play an important role in providing such instruments, especially for the non-financial sector. The results show that, during the crisis and especially in the post-crisis period, domestic private banks reduced their share in such markets. Moreover, we show that this market is less concentrated than the credit market, which is evidence for the importance of the existence of smaller financial institutions.
Foreign banks; Credit; Currency derivatives; Crisis transmission; Brazilian economy
