Numerous attempts have been made to discover the effect of competition on banking stability, before and after the recent global financial crisis. Despite the rich theoretical and empirical literature on the topic, two contradictory views are observed; the competition-fragility view and the competition stability view. On one hand, the former view argues that higher competition leads to more pressure on profits and hence induces banks' management to take higher risk strategies. On the other, the supporters of the competition-stability hypothesis argue that banks in more competitive markets tend to charge lower rates, which reduces the entrepreneurs' cost of borrowing and increases the success rate of entrepreneurs' investments. Consequently, banks will face lower credit risk on their loan portfolio in more competitive markets, which should lead to more stability.
