Bridging the Gap: How Banks’ Maturity Mismatch Shapes Monetary Policy Transmission
Working Paper, 2026
Show Abstract
This study examines how maturity mismatches in banks' balance sheets shape the transmission of monetary policy to credit supply.
Linking supervisory data on approximately 1,800 euro area banks to loan-level credit records, we show that the role of maturity mismatches is highly shock-specific.
Mismatches amplify the effects of monetary policy shocks stemming from central bank balance sheet policies, but not those tied to the interest rate policy.
Specifically, we find that banks with larger maturity gaps reduce lending more sharply only in response to a quantitative tightening (QT) monetary policy shock.
To rationalize these findings, we develop a medium-scale New Keynesian DSGE model featuring a segmented financial sector, where intermediaries are differentiated by their maturity gaps.
This framework explains the observed asymmetry: the banking segment with high maturity mismatch is more exposed to long-duration losses that compress net worth, tighten endogenous leverage constraints, and amplify real economic effects through an investment wedge, whereas standard policy rate shocks—which mainly affect short-term rates—generate little heterogeneity in lending responses.