To Whom Do Banks Channel Central Bank Funds?

This paper examines the relationship between central bank funding and credit risk-taking. Employing bank-firm-level data from the German credit registry during 2009:Q1-2014:Q4, we find that banks borrowing from the central bank rebalance their portfolios towards ex-ante riskier firms. We further establish that this effect is driven by the ECB’s maturity extensions and that the risk-taking sensitivity of banks borrowing from the ECB is independent of idiosyncratic bank characteristics. Finally, we show that these shifts in bank lending are associated with an increase in firm-level investment and employment, but also with a deterioration of bank balance sheet quality in the following year.