Macroeconomic Determinants of the Non-performing Placements and Off-balance Sheet Liabilities of Croatian Banks

Background and Purpose: The non-performing placements and off-balance sheet liabilities are often considered key factors that lead to banking crises. Economic and financial crises increase the level of the non-performing placements and off-balance sheet liabilities which can cause significant losses for banks. Effective management and regulatory/ supervisory institutions such central banks should be able to recognize and quantify these effects. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically determine the existence and the quantitative impact of main Croatian macroeconomic variables on the non-performing placements and off-balance sheet liabilities of Croatian banks in the long and short-run.

Methodology: For this purpose the bounds testing (ARDL) approach for cointegration is applied. The ARDL model is performed in two steps. The first step starts with conducting the bounds test for cointegration. In the second step, when cointegration is found, the long-run relationship and the associated error correction model are estimated.

Results: The results indicate the existence of stable cointegration relationship between the variables i.e. in the longrun, an increase in real GDP reduces the level of the non-performing placements and off-balance sheet liabilities of Croatian banks wherein an increase in prices, unemployment, interest rate and the depreciation of the Croatian kuna exchange rate increases their level. On the other hand, in the short-run the results are rather mixed.

Conclusion: To avoid crises, effective bank management and regulatory/supervisory institutions should be able to recognize and quantify these effects. This is a necessary precondition for implementation of an adequate prudential and monetary policy measures for reducing the level of the non-performing placements and off-balance sheet liabilities.