Mending the broken link: Heterogeneous bank lending rates and monetary policy pass-through

We analyse the pass-through of monetary policy measures to lending rates to households and firms in the euro area using novel bank-level datasets. Banks' characteristics such as the capital ratio, exposure to domestic sovereign debt, percentage of non-performing loans and stability of funding structure are responsible for the heterogeneity in the pass-through of conventional monetary policy changes. The location of a bank is irrelevant. Non-standard measures reduce lending rate heterogeneities. Banks located in financially stressed countries and with weak balance sheets are most affected. Banks' lending margins have fallen considerably. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.