THE BANK LENDING CHANNEL IN A PARTIALLY DOLLARIZED ECONOMY

This paper studies the transmission of monetary policy through the bank-lending channel in a partially dollarized banking system. Taking advantage of the cross-sectional and time-series variation in individual Mexican bank balance sheets, I find that the deposits and loans of banks that have a larger share of foreign currency deposits are less sensitive to domestic monetary shocks, particularly for small banks. The results also suggest that banks with a larger foreign deposit share are more sensitive to foreign (U. S.) monetary shocks and Mexican country risk. The results indicate a novel way in which monetary policy has real effects in a partially dollarized economy: Not only are banks unable to easily replace insured deposits with other sources of funds because of information frictions (the conventional bank lending channel), but they are also unable to fully offset a loss of domestic currency deposits with foreign currency deposits.