Kapitalstruktur i banker, en jämförelse mellan Storbritannien, Sverige och USA

Sammanfattning: Background and problem: The importance of banks was clearly shown during the last financial crises, when the crises that started in the banking sector spread to the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons that this thesis is focused on banks in particular, one other reason is that a lot of previous studies has chosen to exclude banks because of the fact that their balance sheet differ from non-financial companies. This thesis is a beginning in filling in the gap that exists in the knowledge of banks capital structure. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that it is possible to explain the capital structure in banks and that differences in the capital structure of the banks in Great Britain, Sweden and the United states of America exists. Method: The fact that our study is partly a replication of two earlier studies made a deductive approach most appropriate. The deductive approach meant that the theory on capital structure led to hypotheses that then were tested. The study was conducted based on a quantitative design with data retrieved from the database Orbis. Conclusions: Based on the tests performed, a conclusion was drawn that the capital structure in banks can be partly explained by the variables used in this study. Differences between countries have been demonstrated with regard to the institutional differences that exist. This thesis has also shown that theories regarding capital structure of non-financial corporations can be applied to banks with some adjustments.