Effects of Macroeconomic Variables on the Lending Behavior of Bank Maskan of Iran

Since various economic sectors, in particular housing sector, need to bank loans, the variations in lending behavior of banks due to changes in key economic variables may jeopardize the sound economic activities. In this study the lending behavior of Bank Maskan of Iran was modeled by a Vector Auto-regression (VAR) model during 1991-2011. The results of long run Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) indicated that the broad money supply, inflation rate and stock price fluctuations have indirect effects on lending behavior of Bank Maskan, however the effect of exchange rate variations is positive. In addition, the results of short run VECM showed that variations in the broad money supply have direct effects on lending behavior of Bank Maskan, but inflation rate, exchange rate and stock price fluctuations have no significant effects.