Risk culture and banking supervision

Purpose: In the context of the Banking Union, this paper focuses on the risk culture of a sample of Central Banks and Supervisory Authorities in Europe as well as of the ECB.Design/methodology/approach: Risk culture is measured through text data processing of the official discourses made by the head Supervisory Authorities, during the years from 1999 to 2012.Findings: Results highlight heterogeneous but converging risk cultures for EU supervisors and the presence of a "distance" between these cultures and the risk culture of the ECB.Originality/value: The paper points out that cultural differences, especially in presence of credit markets still characterized by poor integration, could create unwanted distortion effects during the initial stages of the Banking Union.