Implications of post-crisis banking regulation after 2007 on the debt capital structures of German companies and corporate banking business models

Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,5, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, course: Corporate Finance, language: English, abstract: Total financing volumes and financing structures are important indicators for numerousreal economic and financial developments. Financing decisions are based primarily oninvestment decisions, but also provide indications for financing conditions forcompanies in the money and capital markets. The financial crisis starting in 2007 and2008 affected these markets in Germany in various ways. The spillover of the crisis to Germany can, to a considerable degree, beexplained by the fact that German credit institutions had reached the brink of collapse. One central problem and cause of the crisis was poor risk monitoring, for instancethrough rating agencies on the US securitization market. The burden on banks due tocrisis-induced write-downs as well as the drying-up of interbank money markets, whichresulted in refinancing problems for numerous credit institutions, created a fear of apotential credit crunch for companies or the economy at large. This means the main macroeconomic concern was that the restrictionon credit supply might be severe enough to cause an economic crisis. As a result of these disturbances, the regulating authorities put forth several newmeasures, provisions and rules. As a lesson learned, one central task should be strengthening the resilience of the financial system to future crises. Thework in hand, focuses on the effects of the Basel III regulations as these, on the onehand, are already being enforced and, on the other hand, have a considerable impacton corporate finance and corporate banking business models. The Basel III Accords concerning higher capital requirements for banks were alreadyunderway before the financial crisis hit, but the legislators and supervisory authoritiesaccelerated their implementation after the onset of the crisis. In its aftermath, theeconomy experienced historically low levels of interest rates as a result of monetarypolicy. Nevertheless, the conventional wisdom of scientists, consultants, and otherexperts was shaped by the experience that bank loans tend to become more expensiveand scarcer when when new regulatory requirements are introduced. They advisedcompanies to shift their debt capital structures from major bank loan financing, whichhas historically been the major source in Germany, to more capital market financinginstruments.