Bank-Insurance Risk Spillovers: Evidence from Europe

We investigate cross-sector financial contagion over the period 2006-2014 for a sample of large European banks and insurers. We use CDS spreads and define contagion as correlation over and above what is explained by fundamental factors. Moreover, we assess the impact of different business models on contagion and the channels through which it spreads. We find that, for insurers, size and investment income raise contagion, while for banks capital adequacy, funding and income diversification are the most relevant factors. Furthermore, leverage is crucial in both sectors. We also provide evidence of the main risk transmission channels: the asset-holding and the guarantee channel for insurers and the additional collateral channel for banks. Our results offer new insight on how credit risk spillovers spread across sectors and call for further regulatory and supervisory effort in understanding if and where cross-industry similarities increase contagion risks.