Identifying and dating systemic banking crises using incidence and size of bank failures

We analyse three databases of banking crises and investigate their consistency in the identification and timing of crises. We find that there are large and statistically significant discrepancies between the three datasets. We also compare the dating of banking crises according to these databases using information on the number and size of bank failures for four crises for which the timing strongly differs across these databases. We conclude that information on these variables allows determining the timing of banking crises more precisely. On the basis of our findings, we consider the database compiled by Laeven and Valencia to be the most accurate.
 
Keywords: systemic banking crises, dating of crises, bank failures, monetary statistics, financial accounts.
JEL classification: G01, G21, N20.

Working paper no. 406