The study of the effects of liquidity and credit risk on bank stability in Iran using the Z-score index

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of liquidity and credit risk on the banking stability in Iran using the unbiased Z-score index. This investigation finds significance with regard to the subjects of bankruptcy and banking crisis. In order to attain the purposes of this research, a sample of 18 Iranian banks for the period of 2007-2017 was used and three main hypotheses were constructed. The Dynamic Panel data approach was applied for the estimation of the model along with the use of the two-step System GMM. The results indicate that credit risk and liquidity risk significantly reduce banking stability but the effect of their interaction is not significant. The findings of the study provide bank managers with better understanding of bank risks and the efforts aimed at managing liquidity and credit risks. It is shown that an increase in the capital has significantly improved banking stability, while inefficiency, return on assets (based on risk-return tradeoff), loan growth, GDP per capita (based on Minsky's financial instability hypothesis) and sanctions on banks have had significant negative effects on banking stability.