Interest Rate Pass-Through in the Polish Banking Sector and Bank-Specific Financial Disturbances

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of disturbances in operation of the Polish banking sector on the effectiveness of monetary policy implementation. The pass-through of changes in market interest rates to retail interest rates, offered by banks to their customers, is analysed in the context of a deterioration in quality of bank credit portfolios, a decrease in bank profitability (both related to a slowdown of the economy) and capital adequacy ratios. Main empirical findings are that the more profitable banks tend to adjust lending rates and rates for the longest deposits faster and stronger than the less profitable ones and that the banks with loans of lower quality tend to adjust corporate loan interest rates faster and stronger than banks with less risky credit portfolios, but the opposite is true for the most popular term deposit. These have some implications for interest rates spread dynamics that are analysed in the paper.