Title: Financial contagion in interbank network

Authors: Dengbao Yao; Xiaoxing Liu; Xu Zhang

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211189, China ' School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211189, China ' School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 211189, China

Abstract: Contagion effect is a key concern for banks charged with safeguarding overall financial stability and avoiding bankruptcy. In this paper, we investigate how the default contagion caused by a single bank's initial shock spread to its creditors and even the whole system, and how to estimate the contagion probability and contagion index, which reflects the impact on the rest of interbank system if one bank fails. By constructing the interbank network, we combine some parameters, such as net worth, leverage of outside assets and the network connectivity, to derive the explicit measures on the potential magnitude of interbank network effect on contagion with little detailed information. Results suggest that contagion effects are most significant if the originating bank is highly leveraged or has high network connectivity.

Keywords: contagion effects; interbank networks; contagion probability; contagion index; financial contagion; banking industry; default contagion; bank defaults; bank failure; net worth; outside assets; network connectivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2016.076482

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, 2016 Vol.9 No.2, pp.132 - 148

Published online: 10 May 2016 *

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